In her Fifth Avenue mansion in autumn, 1898, silver heiress Val DeVere learns a third young woman's strangled body has been found nearby in New York's Central Park. The victim could be someone like Val's late mother-or her-for the Valentine Mackle DeVere is one generation from the Irish immigrants who now risk their lives toiling in the city that promised a better life.

Heartsick, Val joins her well-connected husband, Roddy (Roderick Windham DeVere), to press the mayor for action, but scandal-ridden city hall finds little time for the case of "disposable" young women who frequent the park at night.

A maverick police detective urges the DeVeres to help him find the killer, but his "evidence" ensnares a family friend and could send an innocent man to death row. The couple feel on trial when the detective baits them with Roddy's Old New York heritage: "Tell me this, Mr. DeVere...how many more murders before you and Mrs. DeVere cooperate to save the park your forefathers built?"