Mallory Mitchell and Dr. Duncan Gray find their first official detective agency case in a Victorian fight club. Mallory and Duncan are having trouble finding work for their newly launched detective agency. It’s tough to get clients when you don’t dare advertise for fear of attracting those who only want to meet the stars of an increasingly popular mystery serial. Jack—the writer of that serial—comes to the rescue, asking them to investigate a persistent would-be burglar at her apartment. While they don’t find any sign of the thief, they instead uncover a plot to throw a boxing bout at the Halton House fight club, where Jack has her room. What seems a simple matter of alerting the proprietess turns into something much more complicated and much more dangerous, as they find themselves at the heart of a scheme to ruin Halton House itself.