At the age of sixteen, Louisa has lived all her life with her foster family on a farm. She has never been told the names of her real parents, informed from a young age that her mother died in childbirth and her father died fighting Americans; Louisa is shocked and angry when she is called "The Cuckoo's Daughter" by a fairground gypsy. When she falls in love with a handsome army Captain, the reaction from her foster family is extreme. Will Louisa be able to marry the man she loves and find the truth about her origins?