A young woman in 19th-century London becomes the object of affection for a reclusive yet ostentatious young man. But a murderer is terrorizing the streets, and all of London is in a panic. While the grisly crimes mystify some and terrorize others, plagued by demons of her own, Lavinia is forced to confront the dark mysteries that stain her city red. London society is riddled with secrets, some of them bloody.