One Sunday afternoon in July 1882, while Inspector James Hadley and his family are enjoying a walk in Regents Park, two young women are being randomly selected for their macabre murder in Whitechapel. Their naked bodies are discovered the next day with red roses stuffed into their mouths and vaginas with a note saying 'murder should always be artistic'. Hadley and Sergeant Cooper are summoned from Scotland Yard to begin the investigation and shortly afterwards two more naked bodies are discovered, a man and a woman, who were music hall artists appearing on the same bill at The Gaiety Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue. Their bodies also had red roses and notes tied to them. Hadley arrests Charles Latimer, the son of an MP, which causes ructions, on suspicion of the murder of the female artist, Dorothy Parker, whom he was friendly with, but releases him following the murders of two news paper reporters. Their naked bodies had been found smeared with black printers ink and Hadley suspects that the news paper proprietors are now in mortal danger so armed Police are deployed to guard them while the investigation continues at a fast pace. The killer watches all the moves Hadley makes as he endeavours to find the person responsible for seemingly motiveless macabre murders.