Stephen Lowry, a heartbroken widower, is living in Victorian London with his housemaid Lily. While Stephen's wife was suffering from gastroenteritis and eventually passed away, Lily has been keeping this information hidden from him. She uses this knowledge to improve her position in the household and stay close to Stephen. Stephen, now in a better financial situation with a business partnership and a romance of his own class, decides that Lily must go. However, his first attempt to remove her only strengthens her hold over him.