The family's hard-earned reputation is everything to them and Rose is dispatched to Ireland, where she can conceal her condition and place her baby up for adoption.

Young Rose is met by her aunt, a nun in Carrickbrack Mother and Baby Home, and is soon swallowed whole by the religious institution.

The girls are treated abysmally and their babies seen as commodities; sold with no emotional involvement.

Sister Agnes justifies the adoptions in the typical Catholic way: "Unfortunately, many modern girls have peculiar ideas. They think they can do whatever they like without considering the consequences. And, of course, they never pause to consider the pain and shame they're visiting on their families."

Dublin, 2013 and Martha Sheeran begins the process of tracing her birth-mother.

With limited details from her adoptive parents, she becomes frustrated with the delays involved with official research.

Her teenage daughter does her own sleuthing and it is not long before they are visiting the site of Carrickbrack; with decades of secrets and grief hidden behind its stunning facade.

What happened to the American Girl? Did she ever think about her baby? Who was the child's father? The questions begin to mount as mother and daughter continue their search.

Rachael English (pictured) has addressed the overseas-adoption process, but in reverse.

The harrowing details of what occurred in Irish Mother and Baby homes has only fully come to light in recent years; with revelations of hidden records, secret burials and systematic abuse.