Catherine DuCrox, at the age of eighteen, abruptly inherited her father's cigar and tobacco shop. For a young woman in Victoria's England to take it upon herself to become a business owner was almost scandalous - and in such a masculine-oriented business as well. Yet she goes ahead to first create an income for her mother and sister and later to extend her empire, becoming the first tobacconist to import Indian cigars and the first to introduce cigarettes to the public. Along the way, she finds that breaking the rules will not always get her what she wants - and that some rules are never meant to be broken.