In 1908, international tensions mount as the world plunges toward war. When a brilliant American battleship gun designer dies in an apparent suicide, the man's grief-stricken daughter turns to the legendary Van Dorn Detective Agency to clear her father's name. Van Dorn puts his chief investigator on the case, and Isaac Bell soon realizes that the clues point to murder not suicide. When more suspicious deaths occur, Bell realizes that a spy is killing scientists working on secret project Hull 44.