In the New Orleans of 1913, Valentin St. Cyr is working as an investigator for several big law firms.  He is done with Storyville -  the location of bordellos, saloons, music, graft and mayhem - much to the relief of Justine who now lives with him.  His old friends and employers feel somewhat abandoned by St. Cyr though they understand the violence and loss of a childhood friend in the last year, had taken their toll. Forces begin to pull him back into the quarter as men are being killed and marked in a bizarre way.  Tom Anderson, the King of Storyville, seems to be slipping; he needs his former employee, the Creole Valentin to make sense of these murders before Storyville’s carefully balanced financial and social structure collapses.