In her Fifth Avenue mansion in autumn, 1898, silver heiress Val DeVere learns a third young woman’s strangled body has been found nearby in New York’s Central Park. The victim could be someone like Val’s late mother—or her—for the Valentine Mackle DeVere is one generation from the Irish immigrants who now risk their lives toiling in the city that promised a better life. Heartsick, Val joins her well-connected husband, Roddy (Roderick Windham DeVere), to press the mayor for action, but scandal-ridden city hall finds little time for the case of “disposable” young women who frequent the park at night. A maverick police detective urges the DeVeres to help him find the killer, but his “evidence” ensnares a family friend and could send an innocent man to death row. The couple feel on trial when the detective baits them with Roddy’s Old New York heritage: “Tell me this, Mr. DeVere…how many more murders before you and Mrs. DeVere cooperate to save the park your forefathers built?”