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Ida Olson is a seamstress in the Chicago mansion of rich banker Mr. Randolf. She's beloved by her employers, skilled enough to mend any torn garment or make any new one, and desirable enough to rend the hearts of four men at once, quite without meaning to. Depending on one's opinion, she's also either blessed or cursed with second sight—the ability to foretell the future through her dreams. As Chicago prepares for the World's Fair, those dreams are terrifying, concerning a man in a black suit who murders single women of Ida's age. Ida knows the nightmares are more than just dreams. Matters get worse when two female friends of hers rent a room in the supposed murder house. Will any of her suitors, including a highly intelligent and practical police detective, believe her? How many more vulnerable adolescents will die if no one takes her seriously?
In this final book of her trilogy, Cornell draws heavily on the life of Inga Ohlsdotter, her maternal great-grandmother, who changed her name to Ida Olson. Inga did, in fact, experience prophetic dreams. Male characters usually treat female characters with reputations for clairvoyance with some degree of fear or suspicion. However, every man Ida encounters carefully considers what she tells him and acts on the information she provides in the search for the murderer. H.H. Holmes is remembered as America's first serial killer. Cornell creates an intriguing mystery based on a meeting between him and her relative that plausibly could have occurred, given the carnival atmosphere in Chicago in the summer of 1893. Anyone unfamiliar with or curious to learn more about Holmes' atrocities may find this work of historical fiction an interesting place to begin.