Twenty-year-old Adelaide Spektor, the estranged daughter of famous detective Karol Spektor, lives in a small seaside town beset by a series of murders that trace back to the old exhibition grounds, where ruins of steel and glass are the new shelter to a gang of waifs and strays, misfits and tramps. When she witnesses the murder of her father’s old friend, she sees her chance to find Karol and reclaim her former place in society. But only the notorious colonist and double murderer Emily can help take up Adelaide’s father’s trail.