The lives of two young women collide in Victorian England when a trio of 'fingersmiths' (pick-pockets) concoct an elaborate scam to defraud a young heiress of her inheritance. The story alternates between the twisting back alleyways of Dickensian London and the cloistered gloom of a Gothic mansion in 1862. The story is an adaptation of Sarah Waters' Man Booker Prize nominated novel.