
Jack the Ripper was a serial killer who butchered a number of women in and around the Whitechapel District of London in 1888. This drama begins about six months after the final murder, with now-peaceful East London hoping that the reign of terror is over. Among the hopeful are members of H Division, the police precinct tasked with keeping order in the district, including Detective Inspector Edmund Reid, a forward-thinking detective haunted by a past mistake that ended in tragedy. While trying to keep order in the chaotic streets of Whitechapel, Reid is soon drawn into the seedy criminal underworld of Victorian London, where each new murder elicits fear that the Ripper may be back.

Murdered corpses are discovered in a slum tenement; a boxing championship reveals vengeful feelings within the police force.

Captain Jackson's reckless elder brother arrives in Whitechapel carrying a valuable uncut diamond; Reid and Flight become involved in the plight of a local craftsman defrauded of his income; Susan struggles to resist the influence of Silas Duggan.

Reid suspects the same hand behind the burning and desecration of churches and synagogues in Whitechapel; an old friend of Drake's wife disrupts the domestic happiness he enjoys.

When an Irish explosives specialist is freed, he murders a member of Parliament; Reid must send an undercover agent into the Irish community.