Amy's father has fallen into the clutches of the 'demon drink' and, once a skilled jeweller, he is now an odd-job man who goes missing for days when he's 'on the booze'. The family is barely managing with mother's hard work. Aunt Delia and Uncle Joshua have offered 13-year-old Amy a chance at an education, if she comes and joins them in Dunedin. Amy is an aspiring artist, and it is too good a chance to turn down. Especially when she has the opportunity to meet the acclaimed woman artist Frances Hodgkins. In the hustle and bustle of big city Dunedin, Amy finds herself involved with the darker side of life through her friend Mary, who works in a sweatshop then goes missing. The backdrop to all this is Amy's observations of her Aunt's involvement with the Women's Christian Temperance Union, and the struggle to get women the vote.