It's December 1896, and having married reporter Harper Lloyd, Mary Handley shifts her focus from private investigations to raising her new daughter. Still, when operetta composer William S. Gilbert seeks her help in retrieving a ransomed manuscript, Mary obliges. But the exchange goes wrong, and she soon discovers her husband has been murdered. In this fourth novel in the series, Mary realizes some of the biggest men in New York may be involved, and she's going to need Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt on her side if she's going to catch Harper's killer.