When Esther Thorel the wife of a Huguenot silk-weaver rescues Sara Kemp from a brothel the two women forge an uneasy relationship. Sara despises her mistress's blindness to the hypocrisy of her household while Esther wrapped up in secrets sees Sara as just another charitable cause. Esther dreams that her husband will one day weave the designs she has been painting for years - but when he laughs at her ambition she unwittingly sets in motion events that will change the fate of the whole household and set the scene for a devastating day of reckoning between her and Sara.