After the death of her mother, young Charity Chastine comes to post-Revolutionary War America in 1789 looking to begin a new life. She settles in a small Connecticut town where she acquaints herself with a gallery of people from both the privileged and common classes of society. They have their sorrows and joys, secrets and stories, and triumphs and tragedies. Upon her arrival, she unknowingly becomes entangled in the unsolved murder mystery of a young local girl, who she resembles, and her Redcoat boyfriend. She then learns of the desperate search for a hidden treasure and a priceless diamond stolen from the monarchs of Europe while in the employ of a wealthy and prominent woman with dark family secrets. As Charity struggles to find her place in American society, she is lured into a web of deception, deceit, and treachery woven by unscrupulous characters with shocking secrets and desires. What horrific and inevitable events await poor Charity? Who will come to her rescue? How will these encounters, along with a favorite and mysterious doll in her possession, affect Charity's life and the lives of the people around her whom she has named patriots and scoundrels?