The Inheritance is built on the premise that birth into a family of wealth and high social position empowers the individual, and the main question is how young Edith Adelon can find her true happiness and place. For much of the novel, which is set in the nineteenth century, Edith is cast as a sad orphan living among landed British aristocrats.

Now of marriageable age, she was brought from Italy years earlier by wealthy Lord Hamilton to serve as playmate and teacher to his daughter, Amy.

Edith's devotion to her task, and her outstanding good qualities, have endeared her to Lady Hamilton, now widowed, and to teen-age Amy and Amy's older brother, Lord Arthur Hamilton. Although fiercely attached to the Hamiltons, who have treated her well, Edith feels a keen sense of loneliness. She must play the part of an outsider in this social milieu.

Alcott's...