Veteran of the American Civil War, Failed Husband, Ex-Lawman Now Turned Novelist, Denton is an Uncomfortable Outsider in Class-Ridden Turn-Of-The-Century England. but He is About to Be Plunged Into the Dark Heart of a Society Where Privilege and Propriety Hide Unspeakable Horrors. When a Seeming Madman Turns Up at His Door Declaring He Has Just Seen Jack the Ripper, Denton Dismisses His Lurid Ravings As the Syptoms of Sexual Dementia. but When a Prostitute's Horribly Mutilated Body is Discovered That Night in the Minories, Denton Suspects There is a Connection Between the Two Events. While the Police Investigation Grinds Towards a Seemingly Pre-Ordained Conclusion, Denton Becomes Obsessed With Finding Out Who Stella Minter Really Was and Who Killed Her - a Search That Leads Him by Degrees Into London's Grim Sexual Underbelly, and to an Uncomfortable Confrontation With His Own Desires.