How does Lydia's life change after she moves to New York City in the novel, Empress of the Splendid Season?

After arriving in New York City, Lydia becomes a seamstress in a factory with deplorable conditions. She falls from being the spoiled daughter of a prominent man to a common worker sewing fake pearls on sweaters. She finds herself in conditions that are utterly foreign to her; she mentions to her friend Concha that at that point she knew "how Marie Antoinette felt before going to the guillotine."