Richard Rhys, a portraitist, wakes up one night beside the body of a dead prostitute. The last thing he remembers is being hit in the head with a bottle. He stumbles out in to the wintry street only find the kindness of Victoria Thornton, a wealthy philanthropist and reformer determined to help the lower classes and the impoverished. It is a chance meeting but profound enough to turn both of their worlds upside down. Richard is a drunk and a womanizer while Victoria is devoted to her work and to her arranged marriage to Charles Thornton. Catherine Burroughs is a famous actress of the English stage and a cohort of Richard`s. When Charles asks Catherine to recommend an artist to paint his wife`s portrait she refers Richard. Jules Whitby is an apprentice of Edward Muybridge. He has one of the first prototypes of the motion picture camera. Dr. Stephens, an aristocrat and doctor pays Jules to collect morbid images of dead prostitutes for his library.