A menace stalks the streets of Victorian Buffalo. Costumed like a medieval physician, it brings panic, sickness, and death to a city already in turmoil over automaton rights. Fresh off a boat from Poland, Kasper Czak can't let politics or mysterious figures deter him. He's willing to work anywhere for an honest wage, including as caretaker at the Lost Waifs Orphanage. Tori Anderson, a young woman with a withered arm, also works at Lost Waifs, where there's never enough time, hands, or money for their young charges. Locked down at the orphanage with ailing children, cranky steam units, and the handsome Kasper, Tori wonders if she'll survive. But when she comes face to face with the plague doctor, she discovers her true strength.