Jane Steele's favorite book is Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre," and while her life is like Eyre's in many ways, there is one important difference--Steele is a murderess. After escaping life with her spiteful aunt and predatory cousin, Jane spends several years in a grim boarding school, escaping at last, leaving a trail of bodies as she hides from the authorities in London. When she learns her aunt and cousin have died and someone named Mr. Charles Thornfield has bought her childhood home, Jane returns there undercover as governess, hoping to discover if she is the true heir and, if so, what she can do to take what is rightfully hers.