the benevolent thomas coram has recently opened a foundling hospital in london called the "coram hospital for deserted children". unscrupulous men, known as "coram men", take advantage of the situation by promising desperate mothers to take their unwanted children to the hospital for a fee. the story follows a range of characters, focusing on two orphans: toby, saved from an african slave ship; and aaron, the deserted son of the heir to an estate, as their lives become closely involved with this true and tragic episode of british social history.