It is 1895 and Sergeant Bartholomew Holmes of Scotland Yard sets out to look into the suicide of a man in a printing works where, nearby is found the naked body of a child.
He follows a murky trail involving pornography, the aristocracy, a music hall hypnotist and the puzzle of a long-forgotten poisoning.
Assisted by Kitty, the Yard's first typist, and Jasper, a street urchin, Holmes uncovers torture, depravity and several corpses before facing death himself in his climactic confrontation with London's most terrifying killer since Jack The Ripper.