A newspaper photographer, Jean, researches the lurid and sensational axe murder of two women in 1873 as an editorial tie-in with a brutal modern double murder. She discovers a cache of papers that appear to give an account of the murders by an eyewitness.

FBI agent Audrey Parker arrives in the small town of Haven, Maine to solve a murder and soon discovers the town’s many secrets—which also hold the key to unlocking the mysteries of her lost past.

In 1858 Charles Darwin struggles to publish one of the most controversial scientific theories ever conceived, while he and his wife Emma confront family tragedy.