When Laura Rambotham arrives at an exclusive Melbourne girls school from her country home, she is ridiculed by the other pupils for her differences - her name, her unusual clothes and, especially, for her 'unpardonable sin': her exceptional musical ability. Laura endures ostracism and misery as she tries to make herself socially acceptable to her vicious peers, never quite succeeding but learning much about the world and its inhabitants along the way.

When Laura Rambotham arrives at an exclusive Melbourne girls school from her country home, she is ridiculed by the other pupils for her differences - her name, her unusual clothes and, especially, for her 'unpardonable sin': her exceptional musical ability. Laura endures ostracism and misery as she tries to make herself socially acceptable to her vicious peers, never quite succeeding but learning much about the world and its inhabitants along the way.