It seemed to Alice that the worst thing that could happen had already happened—an evil stepmother, spiteful sisters and cousins. But life turned into pure hell when the stepmother decided to marry her off to a seventy-year-old duke. Anything—only not life with an old man! And Alice decides to run away. But what should a lonely girl do in a strange city with no means to live on? Get a job as a governess for a mysterious stranger!