Piers Featherstonehaugh and his faithful servant, Mossop, arrive back home to discover a talking cat on their doorstep. The cat tells them of an outlandish plot concerning genetic mutations gone haywire. It then becomes Featherstonehaugh goal to stop this ghastly activity and to catch the fiends behind it.

It is the age of England. Under the stern rule of Queen Victoria, the British Empire has expanded throughout the globe bringing the bright light of civilisation to the darkest reaches of the wild. Wherever there is poverty and heathen ritual, wherever people drop their "H"s or don't take afternoon tea, there is at least one garrison of her Majesty's Army ready to shoot anyone with bare feet.

It is a time of adventure and discovery. For people with a liking of scientific matters, this is the most exciting of times. Those born to the correct families can look forward to working at the forefront of modern technology, as the world succumbs to the power of steam.

But, engineering and steam physics are not the only fields of study for a budding savant. There are other, much darker, sciences to be explored...

Our story begins in an uncharted part of the South Seas. From a cave stretching into the very bowels of the earth can be heard screeches and howls of torment, like some sort of diabolical choir ...