The murder of Judge Hugo Jackson is out of Detective Simon Ziele's jurisdiction in more ways than one. For one its high profile commands the attention of the police commissioner. The judge was presiding over the trial of Al Drayson, an anarchist, who set off a bomb at a Carnegie wedding, but instead of killing millionaires, it killed passers-by, including a child. The trial has captured the attention of 1906 New York City. Furthermore, Simon's precinct doesn't include Gramercy Park, which is where the judge is found in his townhouse with his throat slashed. But his widow insists on calling her husband's old classmate criminologist Alistair Sinclair, who in turn enlists Ziele. Together they must steer Sinclair's methods past a police force that is focused on rounding up Drayson's supporters and have all but rejected any other possibilities.