Each of the book's nineteen chapters examines in depth a crime committed against the backdrop of the Victorian age. Issues discussed include violence against women, which was a common feature of the time, youth knife crime, illegal abortions and changing attitudes towards mental health problems; one chapter looks at the murder of seven members of one family, which was followed by the killer's suicide.

A crime of historic significance is also included. This gives details of the bombing of Salford Barracks in 1881 by Irish nationalists, which resulted in the death of a seven year old Salford boy. This proved to be the beginning of the country wide Fenian Dynamite Campaign, which lasted for four years.