When Daisy Holt was dismissed from her post as a nursemaid she set off cheerfully into the jungle of mid-Victorian London. When Kitty Hammond, proprietress of the 'select establishment' off Leicester Square discovered her she was quick to realise that Daisy had a rare talent and would make a successful entertainer. And there it was that she met the impoverished artist John Skelton. To him Daisy represented the perfect model - the one to inspire his work. But Daisy fell completely and hopelessly in love with him - a love which was to launch her on a stormy career in which luxury, admiration and suffering were all to play a part ...