A lone anarchist has attempted to take the life of Carnegie Steel Company President Henry Clay Frick in July of 1892. Police officials in New York City enlist Detective Sergeant Robert Falconer and his men to shadow the noted anarchist leader Emma Goldman to find evidence of her complicity in the crime. As Falconer investigates Goldman, however, he slowly realizes that she is being targeted by a mysterious band of assassins, and he beseeches her to allow him to keep her safe. Goldman refuses to surrender to fear, though, and instead, determines to maintain her very active life of an anarchist leader and public speaker. Meanwhile, Falconer's friend, Inspector Charlie Penwill of Scotland Yard, has shown up in New York City with French Inspector Prosper-Isidore Houllier to track down a dangerous anarchist who has fled France for North America. As Falconer confronts and engages with the shadowy order of assassins targeting the stubborn Miss Goldman, he lends help to the two inspectors in their desperate search for the French bomb thrower who just might be targeting a candidate for the Vice Presidency of the United States. And, to make matters worse, Falconer soon discovers that the woman he loves, famed journalist Nellie Bly, is also intent on solving the mystery of the secret order of assassins that is slowly leaving a trail of bodies in New York City.