A vicious newspaperman is murdered, and every scribe in the office is a suspect

It is winter in London, and the coal is running short. The chill on Fleet Street is so severe that the men who run the presses for Youth’s Companion are too cold to work. Despite the freeze, their editor—the vile Mr. Bassett—will not spare a shilling for coal. He is behind on paying his employees, has been accused of stealing his writers’ ideas, and refuses to hire any up-and-coming literary talent, be it Oscar Wilde or Arthur Conan Doyle. It is no surprise when the editor is found murdered. The question is, which of his enemies got to him first?

Doyle enlists Charles Dodgson—better known as Lewis Carroll—to look into the murder. When the police try to pin the killing on the slighted Mr. Wilde, it is up to Doyle and Dodgson to clear Wilde’s name and find the true killer of the cruelest man on Fleet Street.