Will friendship overcome the social boundaries of Edwardian London in this bestselling historical tale from the author of Girl with a Pearl Earring.One cold January morning, in the wake of Queen Victoria's death, two young sets of eyes meet across the graves at Highgate Cemetery. One pair belongs to smartly dressed Lavinia Waterhouse, whose mother clings to the traditional values she sees slipping away; the other to Maude Coleman,whose mother longs to escape the stifling grip of Victorian society. Thrust together by the girls' friendship, these two very different families embark on a new century that promises electricity, emancipation and other changes that will shake the very foundations of their lives.