1820. Aberdeen, the Scottish Highlands.
Perched on the North Sea with the Highlands at its back, Aberdeen, a `steep, rough, narrow and malodorous' town has begun its evolution into the Granite City. Here wealth and influence reign in a city where underworld kings, Jacobites and violent reformers, and self-serving politicians clash in a mortal struggle for survival and dominance.

Into this dynamic setting comes a woman from the shadows and a man who pursues her. This series of three interwoven novels, based on the overarching story of Orpheus and Eurydice, reframes a mythic tale of love, loss, revenge, corruption, and redemption, told largely from the point-of-view of three heroines, women from the margins of society who will not be denied. Pitted against them is an insidious Hades-figure whose spider like reach extends across Scotland.