A servant girl plays matchmaker for the local burgomaster’s daughter while setting her own sights on a visiting Irishman.

In 1856, slave Eliza plans to marry George with the consent of the Shelbys, her masters, but George’s owner prevents the wedding. A few years later, Eliza flees with her…

Oliver’s mother, a penniless outcast, died giving birth to him. As a young boy Oliver is brought up in a workhouse, later apprenticed to an uncaring undertaker, and eventually is…