主人公十岁的詹姆斯来自一个神奇的家族，他的祖父每当脑海中出现性幻想就会暂时失明，而他的父亲每当感到害怕时周围一切机械装置都会报销，而詹姆斯自己的超能力就是害死接触到的一切生命体，包括奶牛、草木、花朵以及他的祖父母、父母。为此詹姆斯一个人隐居到深山老林，直到十年后一名从癌症病房中逃出的少女找到了他。

Crime drama featuring the pioneering 19th-century detective Jack Whicher. After leaving the Metropolitan Police, Whicher saves a respectable country lady from a violent robbery in a dangerous quarter of London. Susan Spencer is desperately hunting for her vulnerable niece Mary, who came to London in search of Stephen Gann, the young man who had made her pregnant. Susan commissions Jack Whicher as a private inquiry agent to find her niece and the young man. Soon, Whicher is irresistibly drawn into a disturbing and puzzling murder case, bringing him up against wealthy and powerful figures and throwing him into conflict with his former colleagues in the Metropolitan police. The investigation leads to a private lunatic asylum where Whicher himself must confront the darkness of his own demons.