Grace Marks, a servant in mid-19th C Canada, kills her employer and his pregnant housekeeper and attempts to run off with her confederate, an older male servant. The two are quickly caught. He is hanged; she is spared the death penalty because of her extreme youth (15). So much for the historical record.
Some years later, some do-gooders, sure that Grace was suborned by her older co-worker, hire a (fictional) psychiatrist to figure out what really happened and hopefully exonerate her. But is she really innocent?
The first 5 episodes of this 6-part mini-series are fascinating, opening up a world most of us know little about. The last episode, though, goes off the rails so spectacularly that it almost makes a mockery of the audience for having invested 5 hours in what is ultimately nonsense. Don’t waste your time.