Young Fidelia Knight arrives in Melbourne in 1874, alone except for her treasured companion, Samuel Johnson; well, half of him.
To escape servitude, Fidelia hides each night in Bourke-street's renowned Coles Book Arcade.
She loves words, you see, and wants to know them all.
What she overhears in Coles sets her on a path that will change the lives of everyone she meets, starting with Jasper Godwin, the hopelessly underqualified manager of the new Billings Better Bookstore.