A high-class brothel that entertains New York's most powerful men, the Double Standard Sporting House funds a free clinic for women. When the Tammany Hall criminal syndicate takes over the city in 1868 and starts kidnapping girls, the house's owner Nell 'Doc' Hastings cannot stay quiet - especially after sixteen-year-old Vivie arrives at the clinic bruised and bleeding. Resolving to seek justice for Vivie and girls like her, Doc builds an unlikely alliance with religious reformers, a rare honest ward cop, and an alluring newspaper publisher she can't seem to keep away from. Even with their help, Doc will have to use her sharpest tools - secrets, guile, and a surgical blade - to prevent a dark turn in the sex trade. Full of intrigue, friendship, and love, this timely story of a heroine erased from history by the sexual double standard reminds us that women help and heal one another, even when shameless criminals come to power.