 In 1838, lovely governess Elisabeth agrees to bear a child of anonymous English landowner, and he will in return pay her father s debt. At birth she, as agreed, gives up the child. Seven years later she is hired as governess to a girl on a remote Sussex estate. The father of the girl, Charles Godwin, turns out to be that anonymous landowner. So Elisabeth has to be her own daughter s governess, and she can t reveal the secret of her tie with little Louisa.