Five Worthy Souls

Five prostitutes are murdered in the East London districts of Spitalfields and Whitechapel in 1888. In present-day Australia, Henry Evans is a fourth-generation doctor. He and his wife, Claire have three children: Harriet, 13, Lucy, 10 and John, six. Henry and Harriet both relive in their dreams the murders of the so-called canonical five. Their nightmares are frighteningly similar in detail, especially the death of the fifth victim, Mary-Jane Kelly. The family starts to unravel as the nightmares begin to control their lives. Henry believes they are witnessing the actual murders in real-time. Harriet’s fraught relationship with her parents deteriorates when she discovers an old journal belonging to a distant relative of her father’s, Bertha Eckersley who lived in 19th-century London. Harriet discovers that Bertha is married to Aldrich, who was raised by a prostitute mother. Aldrich has had enough of the impoverished area where he has lived all his life, so they plan a fresh start in the new colony of South Australia. Unbeknownst to Bertha, some of her decisions will impact on Henry Evans and his family more than a century later.