In the early days of their marriage, Charles Dickens was infatuated with his pretty, sweet-natured new wife, Kate. But as he found fame as a novelist and their family rose through the ranks of Victorian society, he grew increasingly frustrated that real people could not be controlled as easily as his characters.

Kate bears her husband ten children and travels the world by his side but the harder she tries to be a model wife the more she finds herself falling short. She seeks comfort and companionship in Anne Brown, the family's trusted servant, but whilst Anne comes to care deeply for Kate, her loyalties are tested to breaking point as the Dickens' marriage unravels.

Mrs Dickens reimagines the life of a complex, forgotten woman and tells the story of a decades-long marriage in all its tenderness, grief, romance and fury. Above all, it shows a woman silenced by more powerful voices until she finds the courage to use her own.