Robin Sparrows is no Great Detective. He's not a dashing gentleman. He's not even a stalwart companion. No, Mr. Sparrows is a humble and hapless clerk at Winston Winston & Crumpet, the wickedest law firm in all of Victoria's empire. But when he is charged with delivering a mysterious box to the arch-villain Kermit J. Tarnish his life of quiet misery is transformed into a quagmire of murder, mud, and madness. Unwilling, unaided, and unprepared, Robin must wander the fog-drenched streets of the Capital hunting the last man he wants to find. But exactly who is hunting whom? What can a law clerk really know about love? And how much trouble can one box cause? At least some of these questions will be answered as Robin confronts brutish valets, quarrelsome cross-dressers, dithering policemen, forlorn soldiers, and sneering phantoms, before learning the scandalous truth behind a shameful war. Truly, there is no rest unto the wicked, nor it seems, unto their clerks.