Stitches Of a Wallflower

Cheiri follows the quietly rebellious journey of a young woman in 1867 Edinburgh-where the scent of carbolic acid clings to the air, and the lines between duty and ambition are tightly drawn. Like the tenacious flower for which she is named, our narrator blooms where few are meant to survive: in the male-dominated world of medicine.

Denied her dream of becoming a doctor, she enters the harsh wards of the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary as a nursing probationer, determined not just to serve, but to understand. In a world where women are expected to follow, she hungers to question. Each stitch sewn, each cry heard, draws her deeper into the anatomy of the human body-and the anatomy of a society that resists change.

Torn between obedience and curiosity, silence and knowledge, she finds unexpected allies and dangerous opportunities. When a secret offer of an anatomy book shifts the course of her quiet rebellion, she steps closer to a future not yet written for women like her.

Rich in historical detail and emotional depth, Cheiri is a powerful portrait of one woman's unrelenting pursuit of knowledge, agency, and the right to carve her own place in a world that insists she stay on the margins.