'I'm a Jewish kid, born and bred on Whitechapel Road - the son of a tailor - and I know a stitch-up when I see one.' 1854. Ben Canaan is a troublesome 23-year-old getting up to mischief in the East End with his band of fellow no-goodniks. But when a shocking discovery turns Ben's life upside down, he journeys halfway across the world to Constantinople, capital of the Ottoman Empire, on the eve of a deadly war. Ben is pulled into the hunt for a seemingly unstoppable serial killer. In the process, he uncovers a deadly geopolitical conspiracy that goes to the very highest halls of power - a global plot that threatens to change not just his life, but the course of history itself.