London 2012 - Ex-banker and perennial loser Charlie Alliss wants to be an investigator of anomalous phenomena but he doesn't know where to start. Then a woman is found dead and mutilated, the victim of a ritual murder, and he finds himself on the case. What does the ritual mean? What are the Sorrows of Angels? What connects the Whitechapel murders of 1888 with this modern killing? What has any of it got to do with Charlie? Then the killer strikes closer to home. Accompanied by a strange, tragic and frankly annoying woman, Charlie must travel across Europe, delve into his family's past, and explore the hidden depths of his own mind, peeling away the layers of everything he thought he knew to find out what is happening and why. The truth is more shocking than he could ever have imagined.