Cast Adrift

A woman named Edith suffers the secret removal of her newborn, which sets off a chain of exploitation and moral decay within a city's underworld. Ambitious scheming, financial malfeasance, and petty criminality converge as the infant is passed among beggars and policy-shop operators while streetwise figures like Pinky Swett intervene in desperate rescue attempts. Parallel strands trace family disgrace, legal entanglements, and manipulative socialites, and charitable actors attempt to trace and protect the child. The narrative offers a stark depiction of urban squalor, the trafficking and neglect of children, and an appeal to readers’ sense of civic and moral responsibility.