New York City, 1845. Timothy Wilde, a 27-year-old Irish immigrant, joins the newly formed NYPD and investigates an infanticide and the body of a 12-year-old Irish boy whose spleen has been removed.
Reluctantly embroiled in a 1840s dispute between a corrupt Tammany Hall leader and an arsonist with an agenda, Copper Star Timothy Wilde finds his investigation challenged by his brother's decision to run for public office.
In 1846 New York six months after the formation of the NYPD, officer Timothy Wilde investigates a ring of blackbirders who kidnap free people of color in the North and sell them to Southern plantations.