After losing her beloved father, Alice is a melancholy 19-year-old who doesn't really fit in with her upper-class, privileged Victorian lifestyle in a world of high society. She has no friends, is unmotivated, and is depressed. Too much of her adopted mother Helen Kingsleigh's concern is for her, and despite her character flaws, Alice is mature, intelligent, a strong-willed girl who always speaks her mind, and she has an independent personality, which is frowned upon in young ladies of her time. She truly wants to make her own choices in life instead of having everything chosen for her, such as picking out her own husband and not being forced into an arranged and loveless marriage to Hamish ascot.