April 1889 – six months since the last Jack the Ripper killing, East London is emerging into a fragile peace, hopeful that this killer's reign of terror might at last have run its course. Nowhere is this truer than in the corridors of H Division, the police precinct charged with keeping order in the chaos of Whitechapel. Its men hunted this maniac; and failed to find him.
A young woman is found brutally murdered, the hallmark signs of the Ripper upon her. Chief Inspector Frederick Abberline believes it Jack's return, but Reid — the precinct's new man in charge — suspects a different evil at work.
A beloved toy maker is beaten to death. The Whitechapel Vigilance Committee presents a 14-year-old culprit who refuses to deny the charge, leading Reid and Drake into the savage world of merciless child gangs.
H Division and the Independent City of London force are thrown together when the panic surrounding a sudden cholera outbreak leads them to scour both boroughs to find some underlying pattern amidst the rising tide of sickness and death.
The brutal clearing of a local slum reveals an indecipherable murder scene and an unreliable witness. As Reid closes in on the killer, it becomes clear that the condemned slum is home to dark secrets that someone is desperate to protect.
A string of brilliantly masterminded robberies draw the attention of Reid and his team. While Jackson works to trace the thieves' hardware, Drake is confronted with a spectre from his past in the form of his onetime Colonel.
As the dock strike of August 1889 takes hold of the city, the killing of a Jewish anarchist leads Reid and the team into the merciless chicanery of the British government's fight against distant empires and global terrorism.
An international shipping magnate arrives in town to complete the acquisition of an ailing London shipping line. Meanwhile, the murdered body of an engine inventor draws Reid's attention just as Jackson and Long Susan's past comes back to haunt them.
Reid is adrift and his team is in pieces following recent events. A kidnapping offers him cause to assemble his men, but Reid is gripped by a growing obsession that leads back to a terrible secret from his own past.
