When Nell’s foster father dies in 1975, he bequeaths her the little white suitcase. Even though she later marries and has a daughter of her own, Nell can’t escape her sense of loss and abandonment. This disclosure alienates Nell for the rest of her life. On her 21st birthday, Nell’s foster father tells her that she isn’t one of his own children. The dockmaster and his wife adopt the girl and name her Nell. She can’t remember her name or where her family is. In 1913, an ocean liner from London makes port at the Maryborough Dock in Australia and deposits a 4-year-old girl carrying a white suitcase. Through the combined experiences of Eliza, Nell, and Cassandra, the novel examines the themes of family secrets, loss and survival, and what home truly means. The tale of her adult search to find her birth family is interwoven with her mother’s attempt to create a meaningful life for herself and her granddaughter’s efforts to solve the abandonment mystery.
The plot concerns a 4-year-old girl abandoned on a boat dock in Australia in 1913.
The limited third-person narrative unfolds in nonchronological order and is principally told from the perspective of its three major characters: Eliza Makepeace from 1900 to 1913 in London and Cornwall Nell O’Connor from 1913 to 2005 in Australia, London, and Cornwall and Cassandra O’Connor from 1975 to 2005 in Australia, London, and Cornwall. The novel takes place in a variety of locations and spans more than a century between 19.
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