In 1913 London, a little girl plays hide-and-seek on the deck of a ship while waiting for the woman who left her there to return. But as darkness comes, the girl is still alone when the ship pulls out from the dock and steams away on a long, grueling journey to Australia. There, the dock master and his wife take in the small castaway who is carrying nothing but a child’s white suitcase containing a few clothes and a book of fairytales. They name her Nell and raise her as their own. It’s not until her twenty-first birthday that they tell her the truth. Nell returns to England in search of her identity and that of the mysterious woman who abandoned her. Her quest is not fulfilled until after her death, when her granddaughter, Cassandra, travels to a cottage on the cliffs of Cornwall and discovers the secrets of its forgotten garden.

A tale of outer and inner journeys, and an homage to the power of storytelling, The Forgotten Garden is filled with remarkable characters who weave their way through its intricate plot to astounding effect.