Having inherited the cases of her deceased mentor Paddy Reilly, private investigator Molly Murphy is following philandering husbands, tracking down runaway débutantes and working in a sweatshop to discover who is purloining dress designs. None of these jobs seem very dangerous ... at first. But when a woman's body is fished out of the East River, Molly fears it is the missing society girl everyone is talking about. Then Molly's sometime beau, police captain Daniel Sullivan, reveals that another corpse may be the girl's cheating lover, Mike Kelly. And now, as the threads of passion and greed weave a vivid tapestry of violence, Molly must descend into the underworld of the gangs of New York – only to realise that she may need more than her street smart to get to the truth ... and get out alive.