Portia Adams has found an outlet for her obsessive curiosity as the consulting detective of 221 Baker Street, like her grandfathers before her. But a bomb planted at a crime scene destroys everything she has fought so hard to establish. She wakes up to a world she can’t communicate with, the sounds around her dulled and unintelligible and the words that come out of her mouth garbled and incomprehensible. The bomber continues to wreak havoc all over London, but no one will work with Portia; everyone from her allies at the Yard to the public itself dismisses the young detective as damaged goods. To make matters worse, a rabid spymaster believes she’s involved in the bombings, and Portia finds herself on the run and having to relearn her skills in a deafeningly silent world.