Publisher's Synopsis
It's 1919, and for fourteen-year-old Ruby Jenkins and her family, life isn't easy. Ever since Ruby's father returned from the war, shell-shocked and incapable of working, Ruby and her mother Mary have had to sacrifice all comforts. Amidst the bleak poverty of their Rotherhithe neighbourhood, Mary earns money doing washing. Ruby spends her days collecting and delivering, scrubbing and ironing. When she gets a paid job at Stone's Laundry, a whole new world opens up to her, and she starts dreaming of one day having a husband and children of her own. Then, sudden tragedy strikes at the heart of the Jenkins family, leaving Ruby distraught and desperate...
