In 1850 Manchester, New Hampshire, Mellicent "Mellie" Blanchard becomes a mill worker to help support her family. In search of additional earning opportunities, she approaches a daguerreotype shop owner with the proposal that he hire her to make paper cuttings or silhouette portraits for those who can't afford an expensive daguerreotype.

When a particularly charming customer asks to escort her home, the seeds of romance begin to blossom. All the pieces of her new life seem to have fallen perfectly into place, but when her new venture brings her an unexpected opportunity, she learns all is not as it seems. Will Mellie, who is keeping secrets of her own, find happiness in the new life she has carved out for herself in the busy mill town?

"This enjoyable standalone novel set in 1850 New Hampshire gives readers a wonderfully detailed glimpse at an exciting period of industrial innovation in America. Miller is compelling as ever, both in audience appeal and the quality of her writing as she creates down-to-earth characters to give this historical treasure a simultaneously new and familiar feel, and dramatizes the timelessly relevant themes of trust and forgiveness."--Booklist