Madam

Perched on the Scottish cliffs for a century and a half, Caldonbrae Hall is a girls' boarding school housed in the ancestral castle of Lord William Hope. The institution vows to send its pupils out into the world sturdy, dependable and willing to give back to society.

Rose Christie, twenty-six, arrives as the new head of the Classics department. The school's old customs, its reputation and its sharp-tongued, spiteful students leave her feeling out of her depth. Her classroom becomes an escape, where she recounts the stories of brave women from ancient Greece and Rome and wins the curiosity of her pupils. Without her realising, those lessons also draw the attention of the people in authority.

As Rose digs into the hidden rot at the core of Caldonbrae, the line between legend and fact begins to dissolve. She must work out how to free herself and the young women she has come to care for from the future the school has planned for them, and the clock is ticking.