Justine Cowan, now an environmental lawyer in Atlanta, grew up thinking that her mother, Eileen Weston, had been raised in wealthy, fox-hunting circles in the English countryside. Her own life in California was full of music lessons and horseback riding --- a direct result, she assumed, of these fond memories. However, as Eileen aged, she began to hint at another, very different childhood. But it wasn’t until her mother’s death that Cowan learned the truth: Eileen had spent her childhood as Dorothy Soames, a resident of London’s famous Foundling Hospital, only meeting her real mother in 1944 when she was 12 years old.

"For some, the story of mother-daughter discord will resonate, while others might be intrigued by Dorothy’s childhood and still others fascinated by an institution whose history was as illustrious as it was wretched."

Haunted by their difficult relationship (“I didn’t love my mother,” Cowan writes), she began piecing together her mother’s story with the help of a memoir that Eileen had written and Cowan had long ignored. Though the manuscript was sketchy on some aspects of her mother’s upbringing, it meticulously detailed the years of suffering Dorothy and her fellow foundlings endured at Coram, the later name for the Foundling Hospital. And when Cowan visited Coram’s archives and met some of the other foundlings, she discovered that everything her mother had written was true. The children were sheltered from the outside world to such an extent that they didn’t know that England was at war until the bombing started. They didn’t even know how to use money and knew nothing about their own bodies, let alone the other sex’s.

Worse were the deprivations. The children wore identical uniforms and had no personal belongings; food was basic and, during the war, sparse; friendships were not encouraged, and love was nonexistent. Among the numerous instances of cruelty were beatings and solitary confinement. The word “Dickensian” comes to mind; indeed, Dickens was very involved in the hospital, which was originally located around the corner from his house.

Cowan creates a vivid history of the Foundling Hospital, chartered in 1739 with the noble mission of saving unwanted children from a life of poverty and crime. In many ways, the trustees, and even some employees who were responsible for these children over its two centuries of existence, were well-intentioned. But, in an effort to prepare them for a life of service --- the orphans became housemaids, cooks and servicemen --- these guardians discouraged them from imagining any larger role in society.

At times, Cowan’s bitter memories of her own unhappiness growing up with a difficult mother threaten to overwhelm Eileen’s story, which, though tragic, is more compelling. After Eileen was reunited with her biological mother, she helped run the family farm before picking up and moving to San Francisco without any job or prospects, until she met and married Cowan’s father, a successful lawyer.

For some, the story of mother-daughter discord will resonate, while others might be intrigued by Dorothy’s childhood and still others fascinated by an institution whose history was as illustrious as it was wretched. In short, there is something for everyone in these provocative pages.