1851. Joseph Benson is employed by Henry Mayhew to interview London's poor. A family man with mouths to feed, Joseph must coax testimony from prostitutes for Mayhew's newspaper articles on the working classes. 160 years later, Madeleine loses her job as a lecturer and moves to Walworth. As her story unfolds, the two eras brush against each other and ghosts of the city's past erupt in the present. For Fans of Sarah Waters and Kate Atkinson.