A socialite has gone missing in Victorian Brighton and rookie Detective Wheatley is assigned to find her, but when a body is discovered under the pier, Wheatley finds himself investigating a brutal murder and discovering a tale of debauchery and revenge. Support comes from the stolid Detective Edwards and the hard drinking Dr Barbara Buchanan, expert in the modern art of necroscopy, but as the bodies increase and Wheatley comes into conflict with authority, his moral compass is shaken by his liaisons with Millie, a saucy lady's maid, and his sympathy for a murderer. As he progresses through this and subsequent cases, Wheatley will become a better detective. But will he be a better person?
