When three beautiful young feminists come to San Francisco in 1892 to advocate suffrage for women and temperance for men, the burly city built by miners and railroad men offers them fierce resistance. Known as "The Trey of Pearls," the trio of chaste and pretty suffragettes align themselves with the church of the local super star preacher. But when their famous advocate, Reverend Devine, is found murdered, Ambrose Bierce and his indomitable sidekick Tom Redmond uncover a different kind of "liberation." To discover who killed Devine - and who is threatening the Pearls - Tom and Ambrose must navigate the heavy seas of free love, the politics of a minister's harem, and the secrets of California's rough and ready frontier past. As Tom gets closer to the truth, the murder count builds, and the tension erupts into a standoff between the Trey, a fraternity of saloon toughs, and, from somewhere in the shadows, the murderer.