It started out as a normal day for two young boys playing on the wharf before the Christmas break ended. Normal until they found the bludgeoned body of a young man washed up on the shore of Toronto Harbour on January 7, 1874. The only identification on the corpse is a partial name inside his coat collar and a washed out train ticket in the pocket. Detective Albert Hodgins is called in to investigate and the trail leads to the small hamlet of Stouffville. In a time before forensics, Detective Hodgins has to use his cunning to determine which of his suspects did the young man in and why.