The murder of Judge Hugo Jackson is outside the jurisdiction of Detective Simon Ziel. Firstly, this case is so high-profile that it is being handled by none other than the new police commissioner, since Judge Jackson presided over the sensational trial of Al Drayson. Drayson, an anarchist, detonated a bomb at the Carnegie family's wedding, but instead of killing the millionaires, ordinary bystanders, including a child, were injured. The dramatic trial captured New York's attention in 1906. Second, Simon's precinct includes the crime-ridden Tenderloin rather than the sophisticated Gramercy Park, where the judge was found with his throat slit in his locked town home the night before the jury had to reach a verdict. But the widow of the murdered man insists that the police call her husband's former classmate, criminologist Alistair Sinclair, who, in turn, turns to Ziel for help. Together, using Alistair's unconventional methods, they must get on the trail of the killer . After all, the police are so focused on catching Drayson's henchmen that they dismiss any other possible suspects.