Nineteenth century London is the centre of a vast British Empire. Airships ply the skies and Queen Victoria presides over three-quarters of the known world - including the East Coast of America, following the failed revolution of 1775. London might as well be a world away from Sandsend, a tiny village on the Yorkshire coast. Gideon Smith dreams of the adventures promised him by the lurid tales of Captain Lucian Trigger, the Hero of the Empire, told in Gideon's favourite 'penny dreadful.' When his father vanishes at sea in highly mysterious circumstances Gideon is convinced that supernatural forces are at work, and that only Lucian Trigger can aid him.