BOOK ONE - MELBOURNE, 1878 Verity Rainsburg is a widowed lady detective. Mindful of her impoverished childhood in an orphanage, she is shocked when Christopher Downham arrives unannounced at her office and demands rent arrears for properties she believes she owns. She and the handsome detective initially clash, but when she discovers that her late husband is alive, she finds solace in Christopher Downham's arms, and heartbreak at the realisation that they must part. This sets in motion a chain of events neither could have imagined, and hurtles them towards an inevitable, final confrontation that threatens to destroy everybody they know and love. THE FIVE VIRTUES ANTHOLOGY is the story of five orphaned girls, all former inmates of the Verwood House Orphanage in Melbourne. When another inmate is drowned, all five stand accused of murder, and they flee for their lives. Over a decade later, each girl is now a young woman, but each finds herself with yet another battle to fight, and with her survival again in jeopardy.