Description
In 2025, following the break-up of her marriage, cash-strapped single mother Nell moves into the crumbling Merry Hall with her teenage daughter, Fern to housesit for its evasive owner. She’s determined to make a new life in the gloomy Victorian mansion but the noises, moving objects and strange smells in her new home make her increasingly unsettled.
In the 1840s, showman Abel Wenham seduces Dolly, a talented albino girl and makes her the star of his performing collection of freaks. But after she becomes pregnant with his child, he discards her and imprisons her at Merry Hall, where her only solace is the company of fellow performers Ada the Bear Lady and the Jack the Posturer. They plan to escape with Dolly and her child and set up in business, but Wenham has other ideas.
When Fern admits she, too, is pregnant, it seems as though history may be about to repeat itself. But is Dolly, just one of the ghosts that haunt Merry Hall, reaching out across the centuries to protect her own child?
