The years is 1929 and from the fog-laden ports of Manhattantown to the bustling scenes of Harlem nightlife, a maniac hunts in Old New York. The Hudson River Killer has thus far gone unnoticed by authorities, but an unlikely partnership between a rookie detective and a brilliant man will bring the hunt to the hunter.

Coleman Carmichael is a part-time teacher, part-time tutor, and full-time learner, a consummately curious man with a gift for deductive reasoning. But when he solves a mysterious death in his Harlem apartment building, he draws the attention of Jay Baldwin, a rookie police detective frustrated by his department's indifference towards crime in certaincommunities. The pair teams up and though mysteries will be solved, what they find is far beyond what either could have imagined.