Lillian Harper moves to the small town of Mt. Absalom to care for her estranged mother Dorothy after an injury. Living in the town’s boarding house which has been run by her family for generations, she discovers conspiracies, ghosts, and a new family in the house’s strange assortment of residents.

Rudyard Funn and his equally miserable sister Antigone run a failing funeral parlour, where they get the body in the coffin in the ground on time. But one day they find a new competitor. With their dogsbody Georgie and a mouse called Madeleine, they are taking drastic steps to stay in business...

Even Greater London, 1887. In this vast metropolis, Inspector Archibald Fleet and journalist Clara Entwhistle investigate a murder, only to find themselves at the centre of a conspiracy of impossible proportions.