New York City, 1907 . A financial panic has just struck New York City, but well-born psychiatrist Genevieve Summerford and her unlikely beau, Tammany captain Simon Shaw, are ensconced in their own little cocoon, celebrating the sale of Simon's colt at auction. Their blissful solitude is abruptly shattered by news that a dear friend of Genevieve's family, Edgar Matheson, has died from a fall down his townhouse stairs. Edgar's wife, May, insists that the death was a murder, for which she is diagnosed with hysteria and sent to a sanatorium for a dubious "rest cure". Hoping to relieve May's mind and anxious to end her demoralizing treatment, Genevieve promises to look more closely into the death to see if foul play may indeed have been involved. Her search takes her deep into the booming oyster industry of Long Island Sound—an industry, she soon learns, that is rife with conflict and intrigue, where there are more reasons for killing a man than she can count on one hand. But as her questioning starts to bear fruit she grows increasingly uneasy. Will she discover the truth, only to destroy May in the process?