In this third novel of the Cree Black mystery series, a friend and homicide inspector asks Cree to help investigate a human skeleton recently unearthed in the foundation of an old San Francisco home, allegedly the bones of a victim of the 1906 earthquake. The bones have intrigued the forensic anthropology team at UC Berkeley with their peculiar anatomical deformities. They call the skeleton Wolfman. Who was the Wolfman?

Cree's historical research takes her back to the unholy glory days of the Barbary Coast, old San Francisco's infamous red-light district. Her narrative is illuminated by entries from the 1889 diary of Lydia Schweitzer, a Victorian woman with her own secret interest in the Wolfman. As the mystery unravels, both women must face human nature's darkest aspects with courage and compassion.