The Fleece Inn stood where the three roads joined..the roads to London..to Norwich..and to the sea. Its trade was prosperous, its hospitality famous, and the host - fat Job - was jolly and generous - to his guests. To his servants and grooms he was cruel, avaricious, and menacing, and to Ellie Roon, the humblest and most menial servant at The Fleece, he was a figure of terror. Ellie was used to being shouted at, to being bullied and maltreated, but when her bastard daughter was born - in a rat-ridden attic of The Fleece - she decided that Hester must have a different kind of life. And so, equipped with little but courage and a strong will, Hester Roon began her eventful progress in the harsh world of 18th Century England.