Ann Eliza and Evelina Bunner have never been apart. Unmarried, the sisters fill their days making hats in their millinery shop, located on the seedy side of New York City, and their evenings quietly in their apartment. But when Ann Eliza buys Evelina a clock that does not work for her birthday, the sisters commence a relationship with Herman Ramsay, setting in motion a series of events that will prove to be everyone's undoing.