Set in London & Monmouth in the late 1700s this is an extraordinary novel about Mary Saunders the young daughter of a poor seamstress. Mary hungers greedily for fine clothes & ribbons as people of her class do for food & warmth. Its a hunger that lures her into prostitution at the age of thirteen. Mary is thrown out by her distraught mother when she gets pregnant & almost dies on the dangerous streets of London. Her saviour is Doll
- a prostitute. Mary roams London freely with Doll selling her body to all manner of cullies dressed whorishly in colourful gaudy dresses with a painted red smile. Faced with bad debts & threats upon her life she eventually flees to Monmouth her mothers hometown where she attempts to start a new life as a maid in Mrs Joness house. But Mary soon discovers that she cant escape her past & just how dearly people like her pay for yearnings not fitting to their class in society...