" Venice is a beautiful place, and even if you knew your mother had dropped you off at a church to be brought to an orphanage you could still lose yourself in all the sights, smells, and sounds of the wondrous city. Annika is a foundling, and she lives in a house with three 'eccentric' professors, a housekeeper and a cook. Ellie, the cook is the mother figure in her life, while Sigrid is the brisk aunt. Annika is not rich, but she lives happily with her family of good friends. In the story she is about 12 or 13, and thoughts about her long lost mother always are flitting back through her head. When her mother comes to wisk her daughter away Annika is thrilled, because though she loves those who have cared for her, her dream has always been to live with her birth mother. When she arrives at her home, a dreary group of people meet her, along with a cold, dank mansion of a home. When she befriends a Romany boy names Zed, things begin to perk up, though she does not know what kinds of plots her 'mother' can cook up. When your mother comes to get you only after you have inherited priceless jewels from a grandmotherly neighbor, something must be up! "
— Amalia, 2/19/2014