Pittsburgh, 1847: A cholera epidemic rages, and young women are disappearing... Augie Dubbins, a former street urchin now grown up and looking for adventure, rushes to be with his old friend Edgar Allan Poe upon hearing of the death of the poet's wife and accompanies him to Pittsburgh at the invitation of a wealthy benefactor. Upon their arrival, the city is teeming with unrest and gray with factory smoke, the air reeking of death after a cholera epidemic kills hundreds of citizens. What's worse, Augie and Poe soon learn, is that several attractive young women have disappeared over the past six months. As Poe becomes preoccupied with the macabre activities of their host, Augie sets out into the working-class underbelly of Pittsburgh to investigate the darker side of the city's society.