Determined to carve out a respectable life for herself in the raw and unforgiving world of 1882 San Francisco, widowed Mrs. Kelly bakes for the Palace Hotel and rents an apartment with Miss Smith, who manages a fancy glove shop. But a fateful trip to fisherman's wharf with her friend and the discovery of a dead woman tangled in a net with a bible, once again throws her into the cooly critical Detective Max Fisher's path. Although Mrs. Kelly has no intention of pursuing the case, Miss Smith's employer is brutally slain and a hidden stash of gold coins surfaces in the glove shop. Detective Fisher's suspicious gaze turns toward Miss Smith when clues-from the vicious Barbary Coast to a chilling orphanage to treacherous whaling ships-tie her to both murders. Desperate to exonerate her friend, though Detective Fisher doesn't trust her, Mrs. Kelly faces danger as she unravels the truth and reveals that Miss Smith's role in the murders may be more complicated than previously imagined. The more Mrs. Kelly uncovers, the closer she comes to being trapped in the killer's net of greed, betrayal, and revenge.