1835. Young journalist Charles Dickens is invited to dinner at the estate of the Evening Chronicle's co-editor. He is smitten with his boss's daughter, vivacious Kate Hogarth. They are having the best of times when a scream shatters the evening. In the neighbors' home, Miss Christiana Lugoson lies unconscious on the floor. By morning, she will be dead. When Charles hears of a very similar mysterious death a year ago to the date, also a young woman,...

"March, 1859. After the 'Great Stink' of the previous summer when Parliament was overwhelmed by the stench of sewage from the River Thames, and with cholera running rife throughout the city, Charles Dickens has a new enthusiasm. Having formed a firm friendship with Joseph Bazalgette, he is assisting the ambitious young engineer in his efforts to find a solution to London's pollution problem. Dickens' friend and fellow writer Wilkie Collins meanwhile...

When his initiation into the Lightning Club takes a murderous turn, Charles Dickens is accused of the crime and is locked away in Newgate Prison where he must rely on his fiancé and her sleuthing skills to save him from the hangman's noose.

Jack and Annie travel back to Victorian London when Merlin asks them to use their magic to inspire Charles Dickens to write "A Christmas Carol."

"London, June 1835: In the interest of being a good neighbor, Charles checks in on Miss Haverstock, the elderly spinster who resides in the flat above his. But as the young journalist and his fiance Kate ascend the stairs, they are assaulted by the unmistakable smell of death. Upon entering the woman's quarters, they find her decomposing corpse propped up, adorned in a faded gown that looks like it could have been her wedding dress, had she been married....