In modern day New York City, Auguste Poe and Margaret Marple continue running their detective agency while Brendan Holmes is battling his addictions. This is where we left off at the end of Holmes, Marple and Poe, the book that started this series. Poe has continued his relationship with Helene Grey, a NYC detective. Grey brings them into a case where six newborn babies have disappeared from the maternity ward of a hospital, in spite of the babies wearing security devices that are supposed to alert staff to a baby leaving the ward. The security camera footage has been disrupted, too. Poe and Marple decide that Holmes's input is needed, so they bring him back to work from rehab, although he insists he wants to leave the detective business. Maybe he'll just go to one more meeting, maybe one more case.
Meanwhile, Helene Grey gives Poe some news that he's not ready to process, and Oliver Paul, a clockmaker, shows up at an event that they are at, seeming to be a groupie of Holmes, talking about Holmes's mother, who Holmes was told had died when he was a child. Paul also talks about a series of deaths of mothers that happens every year on the same day, which always look like accidents, rather than murder. The date is getting near again.
There's a lot going on in this novel, on both sides of the ocean. London has perhaps a related child-snatching situation as well. The most important question is will the children be located in time? But other questions are pressing as well.
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