Heiress Prudence MacKenzie is a valuable partner to attorney Geoffrey Hunter, despite the fact that women are not admitted to the bar in nineteenth-century New York. And though their office is a comfortable distance from the violence of the city<U+2019>s slums, the firm of Hunter and MacKenzie is about to come dangerously close to a high-profile killer across the pond . . . Nora Kenny works in Prudence<U+2019>s Fifth Avenue house, just as her mother once served Prudence<U+2019>s mother. As children, they played freely together, before retreating into their respective social classes. Still, they remain fond of each other. So when Nora<U+2019>s body is discovered in a local park, Prudence is devastated. As other poor, vulnerable young women fall victim, the police are confounded. Has the Ripper crossed the Atlantic to find a new hunting ground? Is someone copying his crimes? A former Pinkerton agent, Geoffrey intends to step in, and Prudence is equally determined. But a killer with a disordered mind and an incomprehensible motive may prove too elusive for even this experienced pair to outwit.