In nineteenth century New York, safes aren't living up to their name. A thief so wily, so impossible to capture the police call her "the Smoke," has been targeting the wealthy. In reality, the Smoke is a woman named Kezia Cyr, a woman born in prison, stolen from her mother, and raised by runaways and pickpockets. When her emotions cause a job to blow up in her face, Kezia's adoptive family scatters, and she is left to avenge those she's lost.

The Smoke may finally meet her match in Pinkerton Agent Shelby Button, who earned the moniker "Cinder" for running into a burning building to capture a criminal. Button finds Kezia's trail and refuses to let her prey go without a fight.

With a decade-old murder to avenge, Kezia will stop at nothing to correct her past mistakes, and Agent Button is willing to trek across the country to bring the phantom Smoke to justice once and for all.