Inspector Sam Blackstone is puzzled by the incongruous appearance of the unclaimed corpse of a young man fished out of the Thames at the time of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. Why should a body dressed in near rags have such smooth hands? Blackstone's investigation takes him into the world of the aristocracy--where he is far from welcome--and into the dangerous streets of London's Little Russia, and, as each new clue leads to nothing more than a fresh murder, he realizes that he is involved in what may turn out to be the worst crime of the century.