In 1894, sisters Charlotte and Anne Mew take a solemn vow never to marry, and never to pass on the family curse: insanity. The spinster Mew sisters descend into genteel poverty, their mother on an invalid's sofa, Anne, the painter, in a menial job. But Charlotte, the poet, will find immortality, and unexpected love. Her path will require that she keep secrets and make sacrifices that may be too much even for Charlotte’s determined spirit. In , Pen Pearson, herself an accomplished poet, has imagined a vivid and affecting story of a woman’s life in Edwardian London that will engage and move every reader.