Adele, the daughter of a celebrated Parisian actress, is a homesick, forlorn eight-year-old when first brought to Thornfield Hall by Edward Fairfax Rochester, her mother's former lover. Lonely and ill at ease in the unfamiliar English countryside, she longs to return to the glitter of Paris . . . and to the mother who has been lost to her.

But a small ray of sunshine brightens her eternal gloom when a stranger arrives to care for her--a serious yet intensely loving young governess named Jane Eyre--even as young Adele's curiosity leads her deeper into the shadowy manor, toward the dark and terrible secret that is locked away in a high garret. . . .

Includes fascinating in-depth background material about Charlotte Bronte and the Jane Eyre legacy