The setting is the historical Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina in the late fall of 1899. Serafina is a 12-year-old girl who, along with her father, lives secretly in the basement of the 250-room mansion. Serafina’s father, whom she calls Pa, helped to build the estate years before and now works there as a handyman for all of the “mechanical contraptions” (6), such as the elevators, dumbwaiters, and steam heating. They sleep on cots Pa built and cook their food on a metal barrel; they live in hiding “among the steaming pipes and metal tools in the workshop like stowaways in the engine room of a great ship” (9). Serafina prowls the upper floors at night. Sometimes, if very lonely, she spies on the Vanderbilts’ many guests strolling the grounds or even plays hide-and-seek alongside the groups of children, admiring their clothing and smiles. She is always distant enough to go unnoticed and never climbs the stairs from the basement in daylight.

Serafina learned to read and write from Pa, but she neither knows anyone besides him nor goes to school. Serafina loves books, and as she sneaks through the mansion at night, she often borrows ones that lie around on end tables; she reads them and replaces them within days.