Amelia Matthew has done the all-but-impossible, especially for an orphan in Gilded Age New York City. Along with her foster brother Jonas, she has parlayed her modest psychic talent into a safe and comfortable life. But when a head injury leaves her with a dramatically enhanced gift, Amelia finds herself imprisoned in the notorious insane asylum on Blackwell’s Island.

As Jonas searches for a way to free her, Amelia struggles to control her new abilities and survive a place where every day brings her a step closer to true madness–especially when she stumbles onto a deadly secret: there’s a murderer stalking the wards. Amelia must embrace her gift and use it to catch a killer–before she becomes the next victim.

Three months after her harrowing experience on Blackwell’s Island, Amelia is settling back into her work at the nightclub and doing her best to come to terms with her new ability to commune with the spirit world. The last thing she wants to do is hunt another killer through the streets of Gilded Age New York. But when she and her brother Jonas discover the body—and spirit—of a young girl whose recent kidnapping electrified the city, Amelia’s resolve wavers. It breaks entirely when a fifteen-year-old boy—the son of one of the club’s Black waiters and his Irish immigrant wife—is accused of the crime. 

Amelia and Jonas have to find the real murderer, and they have to do it quickly: in five days, the boy will be transferred to the brutal Sing Sing prison to await trial. For such a notorious suspect, it’s as good as a death sentence. With the city in an uproar and an ambitious reporter watching their every move, they race to uncover the truth. But as the evidence increasingly points to the boy’s guilt, Amelia and Jonas are forced to wonder: are they saving an innocent, or working to free a killer?