Summary

Mrs. Sara Smythe has worked her way up to the head housekeeper at the upscale, rigid Langham's Hotel in London. One day in June 1884, while working, Sara notices a young girl perilously on a windowsill in front of an open hotel window several stories off the ground. After rushing across the hotel to the room, Sara is able to bring the girl back to safety. The young girl's mother, the elegant Mrs. Minnie Camden comes into the room and chastises the nanny, who was supposed to be watching the child. Later that day, the youthful and optimistic Mr. Theodore Camden visits Sara's office and, in a show of gratitude, offers Sara a prominent new role in a new apartment building he is managing in New York City.

Two months later, Sara is visiting her bitter old mother in the English countryside, and tells...