Driving home late one night, Phryne Fisher is surprised
when someone shoots out her windscreen. When she alights
she finds a pretty young man with an anarchist tattoo
dying on the tarmac just outside the dock gates. He bleeds
to death in her arms, and all over her silk
shirt.
Enraged by the loss of the clothing,
the damage to her car, and this senseless waste of human
life, Phryne promises to find out who is responsible. But
she doesn't yet know how deeply into the mire she'll have
to go: bank robbery, tattoo parlours, pubs, spiritualist
halls, and anarchists.
Along this path,
Phryne meets Peter, a scarred but delectable wharfie who
begins to unfold the mystery of who would need a machine
gun in Melbourne. But when someone kidnaps her cherished
companion, Dot, Phryne will stop at nothing to retrieve
her.