Nancy, jeune vendeuse d'huîtres sur la côte du Kent, voit sa vie basculer lorsqu'elle tombe amoureuse de Kitty, une chanteuse de music-hall aux allures de dandy. Bien décidée à vivre sa passion, Nancy la suit à Londres et s'embarque pour une incroyable épopée dans le West End, quartier énigmatique et inquiétant qui ne prend tout son sens que sous les feux de la rampe.

Sarah Waters's debut, a delicious reimagining of late-Victorian life, chronicles the adventures of Nan King, who begins life as an oyster girl in the provincial seaside town of Whitstable. Her fortunes are forever changed when she falls in love with a cross-dressing music-hall singer named Miss Kitty Butler. When Kitty's career takes a glittering turn, Nan accompanies her to London as her dresser and secret lover, and, soon after after, dons trousers herself to join the act. But this is only beginning of Nan's adventures, in a novel that follows her through heartbreak, recovery and steamy sexual education, and sees her finally finding friendship and true love in the most unexpected places.