Detective Murdoch investigates the death of Oliver Hoyle who is found in the billiard room of his posh club. Hoyle was part of a group of competitive puzzle solvers and he may have been killed after solving a puzzle published by Edgar Allen Poe many years ago. It appears that one of his competitors killed him to get the glory for himself. Meanwhile, Julia visits her father Lionel but arrives only to learn that her father has died. His physician, Dr. Bradley, believes he died of heart failure sometime in the night. Julia is confused, particularly when Dr. Bradley refuses to undertake an autopsy. Murdoch soon joins her and initially doubts that anything illegal has happened. He reconsiders when he learns that Julia has found a needle mark in her father's neck and a new neighbor is the beneficiary in his will.

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.

The police continue their search for Mick and Tim O'Shea but Inspector Brackenreid is also out on his own looking for them. Murdoch finds someone who confirms that the O'Sheas killed Richard Dawkins but the man also suggests that the O'Sheas aren't working alone. Mrs. Cecily McKinnon, the harbor master, says she knows nothing of extortion on the docks but when pressed, points the finger at one of the merchants, Lionel Jeffries. When the O'Sheas are found dead, shot through the head, Brackenreid becomes the number one suspect. Meanwhile, the ladies who participated in the suffragette protest - including Drs. Ogden and Grace - are still in jail. In court, they find that Leslie Garland is one of the Crown attorneys prosecuting them. They get a bit of a boost when Clara Brett Martin, the first woman lawyer so recognized in the British Empire, offers to represent them.