In 1724, Thomas Newton is cast out of his home by his aristocratic father. Desperate to make a new life for himself, he heads to London. Through a string of intimate encounters, he enters the underground world of male-male desire. Soon enough, Thomas meets Margaret Clap, who runs one of the male brothels. Without a child of her own, �'Mother Clap' finds herself drawn to Thomas. She offers him a place in her house, but also a place in her heart. Thomas’s homecoming is too brief. The Society for the Reformation of Manners, a group of Christian zealots, begins raiding the Molly houses. They plan to force the arrest, conviction, and execution of any man guilty of �crimes against nature.” When Margaret Clap’s house is raided and Margaret herself is arrested, Thomas has to make the most difficult decision of his still young life, one that could destroy everyone around him in a desperate effort to save them.

Fleeing London, Thomas Newton reaches Paris full of hopes for a new life with Pierre Baptiste. The hopes are quickly shattered. There are unsettling rumors about Pierre’s past and very real threats in the present. Arrested on false charges, thrown into a dank prison, Thomas must decide whether he can trust Pierre’s help to winning back his freedom. But freedom will bring other risks, especially if it requires a return to London and all that he fled. The men from his past whom he betrayed—and who might well want revenge. His avowed enemies, the bigots that chased him across the channel. And, worst of all, everything he doesn’t know about his family. To survive, he will have to play both sides of the life—as a thief taker.