Circumstances force 8-year-old Sarah Scrase and her widowed mother Ellen to enter the notorious St Giles and St George's Workhouse. When Ellen dies in childbirth, Sarah falls foul of the workhouse master and his cruel wife. Sarah's ordeal seems to be over when sugar mill owner James Arbuthnot takes her into his home. But her wealthy benefactor reports the workhouse master and his wife. Blaming Sarah for their misfortune, the couple decide to take the law into their own hands.