Moorlock Jones is a blackamoor, and in 1863, in the Realm of Greater Britain ruled by Queen Victoria I, Free Catholic Monarch, On The Square and On The Level, he is definitely a second class subject... not quite as lowly as the huffing, chuffing, steam powered mechanical men ("mechs" for short) who, newly emancipated by Victoria's own royal edict, now jostle alongside the poor and humble organic folks through every city street in the more civilized, industrialized areas of the world. Yet Moorlock and his mech companion Kelso cannot seem to extricate their own destinies from those of more elevated station... like the witch named Lady Jane Vanity, who even after her public hanging still reaches out for vengeance on Moorlock from beyond her restless grave. Or Nicholas Dee, Lord Avalon, Physick to the Crown and (unofficially) the Queen's court mage, whose secret status as Master of Shadow Branch, the covert cadre within Scotland Yard devoted to smashing all occult and diabolic plots against the Crown, has caused him to employ Moorlock, all unknowing, on several missions in the past. Yet now, with monstrous iron wolves stalking the dark and foggy streets of night time London while beautiful young upper class girls are snatched off the cobbles by cackling, boil necked hunchbacks, and a hanged witch's hideous death curse hangs in the very air above the Empire like the shadow of a deadly noose, can Moorlock, Kelso, Lord Avalon, and a few other valiant allies prevent rampant chaos from bringing all civilization down in flames?