The brutal clearing of a local slum for the underground railway reveals an almost indecipherable murder scene and an unreliable slum girl witness. Lucy Eames, beautiful and disturbed, is the unlikely key to a Byzantine web of conspiracy.

A young woman is found murdered at the London Hospital and the only clue to her identity is an unusual deformity. The hunt for her killer takes Reid and the team into the shadowy netherworld of the freakshows, where they must seek the help of Joseph Merrick, aka the Elephant Man. Reinforcements for H-Division arrive in the form of DC Albert Flight.