Murdoch is assigned to an adjacent station house when one of their officers is found murdered in Toronto's Chinatown, his theories on the crime come under question.

Detective Murdoch and his methods are compromised when one of his colleagues is implicated in a suspicious murder.

After the assassination of U.S. President William McKinley in Buffalo, Ottawa-based spy Terrance Meyers shows in Toronto. The Canadian government is concerned that some of the assassin's co-conspirators may try to make their way to Canada to avoid U.S. authorities. Rumors have it that Emma Goldman is back in Toronto and the police begin rounding up anyone who might be considered the least bit subversive. Among them is Anton Wocek who is later found dead in a warehouse with Meyers standing by him with the gun in his hand. That's enough for the supremely arrogant American spy Allen Clegg who believes Meyers is part of the conspiracy. Murdoch sets out to prove Meyers' innocence and find out exactly what is going on.

Det. Murdoch investigates the murder of Richard Dawkins who was beaten to death at the dinner table by two masked men just as he was about to make an important announcement to his business associates. Since nothing was stolen Murdoch's new boss, Inspector Hamish Slorach, calls the killing an assassination. Dawkins was rumored to be selling his chandlery business. The harbor master says Dawkins was anything but a saint and the police should look to the seedier side for a solution to his death. Const. Jackson is badly beaten by two thugs which seems to confirm Murdoch's suspicion that the men who beat Inspector Brackenreid are the same ones who killed Dawkins. When they find a dead woman on the shore, Dr. Grace determines she was clubbed to death the night before the attack on Dawkins and was manacled before she died. Meanwhile, suffragettes recruit Julia to their movement and she is joined by Emily Grace. Receiving little support politically, they decide to hold a protest march. They are all soon in jail.

During the renovation of the police station, the body of a long-missing constable is discovered in the foundation which leads Murdoch to investigate that station's veterans' past and the gay community of that time.

George Crabtree investigates a suspicious death in the world of entertainment wrestling.

Murdoch's investigation of a murder at an opium den intersects with Brackenreid's pursuit of Nomi's missing friend.