When the disfigured body of a young woman is found in Whitechapel, Detective Inspector Edmund Reid fears that Jack the Ripper has returned to kill again.
The murder of an elderly Jewish toymaker by a fourteen year-old by a challenged orphan is initially thought a robbery, but Reid begins to suspect "a wider purpose."
A man dies in the street, and word quickly spreads that cholera may have been to blame. However, Jackson thinks otherwise, and when dozens of others become ill, the race is on to discover the origin of the sickness.
The mother of a girl who used to work for Long Susan is murdered, along with a rent collector. The girl claims to have no memory of the event, which may be linked to the construction of a new railway.
A series of robberies plagues the area, and when some of the stolen items are inexplicably returned to their owners, Reid is left stumped. Meanwhile, a sinister face from Drake's military past reappears.
The body of a ship's engineer is found in the Thames, and his murder seems to be connected with the arrival of a powerful shipping magnate and a group of Americans who are hunting Jackson and Long Susan.
As a result of Goodnight's fiendishness, Jackson stands accused of being Jack the Ripper, with Reid desperately trying to clear his name. Meanwhile, Rose's plan to better herself backfires dramatically.
