A fast moving action novel, which is based on historical characters from the first half of the eighteenth century. Jenny Diver, whose character was included as a role in the Beggar's Opera and was also a character in the song 'Mac the Knife', was born in 1700 as Mary Jones in a Brothel in Ireland. She was adopted at the age of ten and her name was changed to Mary Young. Mary was given another name, Jenny Diver, by her gang as a term of endearment and is depicted as a Robin Hood type of character who, after running away at fifteen, makes her way in the world in London as a thief, an expert con artist and entrepreneur of the 'sting'. Twice Jenny is convicted under assumed names of theft and transported to Virginia before returning to London to continue her "business". The third time she is arrested is far more serious and she shares her story with twenty other convicts in Newgate prison, who have all been sentenced to death.