I love this story of Annika, an abandoned orphan who is adopted by a family of eccentric professors and their maids but always yearns for her true mother to come back for her. She is kind, generous-hearted, and loving, in contrast to the spoilt and selfish Loremarie who lives across the street whose Great Aunt Annika visits and cares for. Annika and the aunt form a bond, strengthened as she shares stories from her youth with the girl. The friendship leads to consequences Annika could never have forseen when one day a woman claiming to be her mother arrives and sweeps her away to a remote and run down castle. The luxury and idyl of family life Annika has waited for never transpires - instead she finds herself neglected and in all kinds of trouble - and, of course, it's her old and faithful Viennese family friends who come to her rescue.

The story brings to life Vienna of the 1890s - its grandeur and architectural beauty, the displays of the famous Lipizzaner horses, and the disparity between the lives of the rich and the working rhythms of the poor. The novel sparkles with all this, but more, it shines with the truth that kindness is always rewarded with true friendship, and that love and loyalty, not only biology, are what make the best kind of family.