Flora Gray described leaving home at seventeen, pregnant and disowned by her father, with a suitcase containing clothes, a blank diary from Mrs. Mead, some cash, and the stolen Fabergé egg. She was delivered by an unfamiliar chauffeur to an unmarked farmhouse overseen by Mrs. Lynch, a stern matron who openly judged the girls. Flora was placed in a crowded room with three other pregnant girls—Amelia, Bridget, and Dolores—and immediately realized the conditions were austere and punitive.

Mrs. Lynch mocked Flora’s requests for basic comforts; Flora’s pillow disappeared and later turned up on a manure pile, forcing Flora to use her suitcase and hide the egg and diary in her mattress. The farmhouse operated as a workhouse: the girls labored in laundry, gardening, poultry, and sewing, with proceeds pocketed by Mrs. Lynch. Flora, unused to such hardship, depended on Amelia, who was gentle and fascinated by Flora’s descriptions of Gray Manor.

Flora learned the other girls were uneducated and from abusive or neglectful backgrounds. Monthly medical checks occurred in a “giddyup room,” with Mrs. Lynch mediating all information, and wealthy couples toured the house to view the pregnant girls as prospective sources of infants. Flora received no word from her parents; Amelia confided that Mrs. Lynch burned mail after taking out payments, offering Flora a small hope that her parents still cared.

While working together, Flora imprudently asked Amelia about the baby’s father, and Amelia warned that such questions were dangerous. As months passed, Flora’s bond with her unborn child deepened; she spoke to the baby and resolved to endure for its sake.

Amelia went into labor at night. The girls and Mrs. Lynch brought her to the giddyup room, but the visiting doctor arrived too late. He declared a hemorrhage and said nothing could be done. Amelia died, and a silent, pink stillborn baby remained beside her on the table. A hearse took Amelia’s body, but the baby stayed behind.

At dawn, Flora joined the girls in burying the stillborn child in a field marked by crude crosses, realizing many similar tragedies had occurred. Shaken, Flora swore that neither she nor her baby would share that fate. She promised to bring her child into the world and remain its mother, committing herself to making that future happen.