Deeply traumatised by the mysterious loss of his wife and having spent time with the inmates of the Bedlam lunatic asylum, Sir Jack Rackham becomes a profoundly troubled man. With his sanity vicariously close to breaking point, he is haunted by visions of a black vulture with flaming eyes snatching his beloved wife, and decides that he must find the monster plaguing his memory to discover the truth behind the disappearance. 

Along with his friend Doctor Henry Jekyll, Rackham takes the hunt to the streets of London but quickly realises that he could be sinking deeper into a conspiracy that threatens to rock the very foundations of the British Empire.