New York City, 1894. Captain Jed Crake is a decorated veteran of the Union army and a successful mogul in the meatpacking industry. But this powerful man also has a hidden private life as a predator of young women. Working for attorney Jeremiah Prescott, private investigators Pamela Thompson and former NYPD detective Harry Miller are engaged to search for a maid allegedly abducted by the captain…Before they can find the missing woman, Crake’s dark history catches up with him and he is murdered in a posh hotel in Saratoga Springs. As fate would have it, Pamela’s ward, Francesca Ricci, working as a chambermaid in the hotel, is accused of the crime. Now, in this pastoral playground of the idle rich, it’s up to Pamela and Miller to find Crake’s killer - as well as his victim - and save an innocent girl from a fate worse than death.