Essie can tell from the moment she lays eyes on Harriet Abbott: this

is a woman who has taken a wrong turn in life. Why else would an

educated, well-dressed, clearly upper-crust girl end up in the

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory setting sleeves for six dollars a day? But Harriet

isn't the only one who is lost. Essie wanders between the opposing emotions

of her love for the young would-be lawyer who lives next door and

her hatred for her mother who seems determined to take away every bit

of happiness that Essie hopes to find. As the unlikely friendship between

Essie and Harriet grows, so does the weight of the question hanging

between them: Who is lost? And who will be found?

This is a powerful novel about friendship, loss, and the resiliency of the

human spirit, set against the backdrop of the teeming crows and scrappy

landscape of the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the early 1900s.