For the prostitutes of Leather Lane, nurse Hester Monk's clinic is a lifeline, providing medicine, food, and a modicum of peace—especially welcome since lately their ailments have escalated from bruises and fevers to broken bones and knife wounds. As Hester ventures into violent streets to learn who is responsible for the brutal abuse of her patients, private investigator William Monk follows a case into the English countryside that revives memories long lost to amnesia. The unbearable past returns to him, sharing eerie parallels with the fresh tragedy just beginning to unfold.