Cold cases are a lot easier to solve when you can travel back in time to find new evidence—unless, that is, you get stuck in the nineteenth century. Ali Dawson and her cold case team investigate crimes so old they’re frozen—or so their inside joke goes. Ali’s work seems like a safe desk job, but what her friends—and even her beloved son—don’t know is that her team has a secret: They can travel back in time to look for evidence. So far Ali has made trips only to the recent past, so she’s surprised when she’s asked to investigate a murder that took place in 1850. The killing has been pinned on an aristocratic patron of the arts and antiquities, a member of a sinister group called "The Collectors." She arrives in the Victorian era during a mini ice age to find another dead woman at her feet and far too many unanswered questions. But when her son is arrested, Ali attempts to return home only to find herself trapped in 1850.

Et mystisk dødsfald trækker tråde til fortidens mørke hemmeligheder i andet bind af Elly Griffiths’ charmerende og originale bestsellerserie om den tidsrejsende efterforsker Alison Dawson fra Londons Politi. Ali og hendes team efterforsker gamle kriminalsager, der har været henlagt så længe, at de må rejse tilbage i tiden for at opklare dem. Men afdelingen har haft forbud mod at tidsrejse, siden deres tekniske ekspert blev fanget i victoriatidens London og aldrig kom tilbage. For at distrahere sig selv fra kedelige rutineopgaver beslutter Ali at undersøge en helt ny sag: En ung mand har tilsyneladende begået selvmord ved at springe ud fra en høj bygning. Sporene leder Ali i retning af en karismatisk clairvoyant, som skulle have bildt den unge mand ind, at han kunne flyve. Da Alis elskede kat, Terry, forsvinder, trodser hun forbuddet og rejser tilbage i tiden for at finde ham igen. Men rejsen går galt, og Ali strander i 1800-tallets London – hvor hun møder både gamle bekendte og suspekte typer, som viser sig at spille en central rolle i sagen om den døde unge mand.