This book is a coming of age story of Adele from the classic novel Jane Eyre. Adele becomes a vigilante against men who attempt to abuse or sexually assault women. As the child of a sex worker, her childhood was spent in a brothel, where she learned ways women protected themselves from men, especially with the understanding that the police would be unlikely to help them if they were in danger. Later, she interrupts a man attempting to assault her friend. While visiting another friend, she sees a painting depicting the Rape of Persephone, and this friend's father turns out to be an abuser. Towards the end of the book, the protagonist's father reveals that he had been posing as her penpal, a boy her own age living in another country. He argues that she fell in love with him and that he can take her as his wife, despite already being married. He forces a kiss on her, and then she fights him off.