Sarah Brandt, a midwife in turn-of-the-century New York City, has seen
more than her share of joy and sorrow, birth and death. Now she will see
for the first time how the squalor of the streets can breed madness and
murder...
The Prodigal Son Mission on Mulberry Bend stands as a refuge for girls
who otherwise would have to live by selling the only thing they have of
value--themselves. The work being done there so impresses Sarah that she
volunteers to help out however she can--with clothes, with medical
assistance, with the organization of a benefit dinner. And when one of
the girls is found dead and refused burial because of her former life,
Sarah's passion for justice is aroused.
Reluctantly, Sergeant Frank Malloy agrees to look into the death, if
only to keep Sarah from endangering herself by pursuing the matter. But
Sarah cannot be kept out of the investigation--and just as Malloy
feared, her attempts to find the cause of the unfortunate girl's death
in the circumstances of her life put her in deadly danger--from an
unexpected source...