New York City. 1891. A woman has been found viciously murdered on the top floor of a decrepit Lower East Side hotel. The signs indicate that the murder might have been perpetrated by none other than London's infamous Whitechapel killer, Jack the Ripper, and the city is frozen in histrionic fear until the police finally catch the killer—a French Algerian sailor. Or did they? When more bodies show up, young police detective Robert Falconer must team up with an eclectic band of sleuths to track down a shadowy figure whom they believe is the true killer and who just might be...the Ripper.

A lone anarchist has attempted to take the life of Carnegie Steel Company President Henry Clay Frick in July of 1892. Police officials in New York City enlist Detective Sergeant Robert Falconer and his men to shadow the noted anarchist leader Emma Goldman to find evidence of her complicity in the crime. As Falconer investigates Goldman, however, he slowly realizes that she is being targeted by a mysterious band of assassins, and he beseeches her to allow him to keep her safe. Goldman refuses to surrender to fear, though, and instead, determines to maintain her very active life of an anarchist leader and public speaker. Meanwhile, Falconer's friend, Inspector Charlie Penwill of Scotland Yard, has shown up in New York City with French Inspector Prosper-Isidore Houllier to track down a dangerous anarchist who has fled France for North America. As Falconer confronts and engages with the shadowy order of assassins targeting the stubborn Miss Goldman, he lends help to the two...