Jesse Constam prefers the warm, earthy company in the Seven Dials district of London to his luxurious yet emotionally- barren household in Gower Street and adopts a street urchin, Abel, who had failed to pick his pocket Abel often returns to the infamous district to satisfy his two passions Lilith a high-spirited child of the gutter like himself, and his contacts with the notorious surgeons who carry out their gruesome practise on 'resurrected' bodies