The year is 1909. Coney Island is a bright, malodorous, and garish place, luring work-weary folks in with its dangerous roller coasters, bizarre displays, and promises of "improper" gaiety to be remembered. Three grand amusement parks—Steeplechase, Luna Park, and Dreamland—make Coney Island their home, as do countless independent shows along the Bowery. And some, such as the sinister Snow's Symposium of Secrets and Surprises, take much more from customers than they give.

Suzanne Heath is a ticket-seller for Luna Park as well a reluctant psychic. She has been called in by police Lieutenant Granger to help find and stop a murderer whose victims have been dreadfully mutilated. Suzanne feels obligated to offer her assistance even thought doing forces her to recall memories of her youth, a time when her psychic talents only brought about rejection and pain.

Suzanne's one true friend is Cittie Parker, a young man who ran away from the Colored Waifs' Asylum and now performs as a bloodthirsty Zulu drummer in Dreamland. He knows of Suzanne's abilities and fears for her safety. As Suzanne digs deeper into the grisly Coney Island murders and her own past, she finds herself and Cittie caught up in a nightmare where worlds converge and collide, where death gleefully beckons, and insanity grins like a devil at the gate of hell.