Young and timid but full of sturdy good sense and awakening sophistication, Lily Wilson arrives in London 1844 and becomes lady's maid to the fragile, housebound Elizabeth Barrett. Lily is quickly drawn to her mistress' gaiety and sharp intelligence, the power of her poetry, and her deep emotional need. Theirs is a strange intimacy that will last 16 years. It is Lily who smuggles Miss Barrett out of the gloomy Wimpole Street House, witnesses her secret wedding to Robert Browning in an empty church, and flees with the couple to threadbare lodgings and the heat, light, and colours of Italy. As housekeeper, nursemaid, companion, and confidante, Lily forgets her own fleeting loneliness. But when Lily's own affairs take a dramatic turn, she comes to expect the same loyalty from Elizabeth that she herself has always given.
