Frank Malloy, a detective in turn-of-the-century New York, calls upon midwife Sarah Brandt for help when he is assigned to investigate the murder of Nehemiah Wooten, a Harvard scholar who opposed his hearing impaired daughter Electra's plans to marry a teacher at the New York Institution for the Deaf and Dumb because of his belief that she and her husband would have children who were also hearing impaired.

"Sarah Brandt is shattered when she learns that a woman has inquired at Hope's Daughters Mission for Catherine, the abandoned child she has taken as her daughter. The woman claims she was Catherine's nursemaid, now acting on behalf of the girl's mother to reunite them. Unwilling to simply hand Catherine over to a complete stranger, Sarah asks Malloy to investigate. But when he goes to interview the woman at her tenement in Chelsea, he finds she has...