After the loss of her right leg from the knee down, Emily Forbes has focused on becoming a renowned opera singer. When at last it seems her dream is within reach, she ignores the concern of her detective brother and heads off to New York City, where she lands the lead role in a performance. While promoting the production, she hears a familiar name: DeKlerk. Soon she's digging through the only case her brother never closed. Samuel DeKlerk is a respected physician. After serving in the Civil War and witnessing the devastating effects of privation and war on fellow soldiers' physical and mental well-being, he shifts his clinical interests to diseases of the mind. He's now an alienist--a doctor to the mad--with little time for frivolity. He agrees to invest in the opera, in the memory of his sister, Sarah, who was murdered by a yet nameless killer. When he catches Emily Forbes prying into the past, his life is upended again. As they work to solve a case gone cold, determined to bring Sarah's killer to justice, tolerance for each other turns to mutual respect. Might love be waiting for them in the final act?