Still humiliated after his disastrous posting in Cobourg, preacher and sometime detective Thaddeus Lewis is asked to investigate a case of arson and murder that had its beginnings as a simple suit for seduction - a so-called "heart balm tort". The last person he expects to find in London, Canada West is con-artist and former adversary Clementine Elliott, a woman he last saw many years before - when she was skipping out on her hotel bill. London buzzes with gossip as Thaddeus doggedly pursues evidence of a young man's innocence, but he appears to be getting nowhere until he enlists Clementine's aid - and when Thaddeus's granddaughter Martha is threatened by the killer, Clementine proves to be an unexpected ally in the desperate effort to save her.