The year is 1845. Elizabeth Barrett is a published poet - and a virtual prisoner in her own home. Blind family loyalty ties her to a tyrannical father who forbids any of his children to marry. She has resigned herself to simply existing. That is, until the letter arrives...'I love your verses with all my heart, writes Robert Browning, an admiring fellow poet. And as friendly correspondence gives way to something more, Elizabeth discovers that Robert's...

Eleven-year-old Nannerl is arguably the best keyboard player in all of Europe. Yet because her six-year-old brother Wolfie can play almost as well as she, he receives virtually all the praise and adulation. Traveling far and wide with her family, she and her brother perform before the crowned heads of Europe. Social convention and public clamor relegate her to living life in the shadow of a prodigy. But when will Nannerl ever realize her own dreams...

Although she's never met her fiancé, she's headed for New York to marry one of America's wealthiest heirs. Filled with doubts and hoping for a chance at "real life, " she swaps identities with her maid Dora. For Dora, it's the chance of a lifetime. But for Charlotte, what begins as the whim of a spoiled rich girl becomes a test of survival beyond her darkest dreams.