Taking a job with the Children's Aid Society of 1858 New York to find her lost sister, Marianne finds herself drawn to a fellow agent before their work in a small Illinois railroad town is upended by tragedy. Simultaneous Marianne Neumann became a placing agent with the Children's Aid Society with one goal: to find her lost sister. Her fellow agent, Andrew Brady, is a former schoolteacher who has a way with children and a hidden past. As they team up placing orphans in homes in Illinois, they grow ever closer . . . until a shocking tragedy changes one of their lives forever.