The year is 1894 and Portland, Oregon's white slave trade is alive and flourishing thanks to the Shanghai Tunnels underneath the city. When Vera Carabella, a performer at a vaudeville theater, is found murdered in the tunnels, the police write it off as a botched kidnapping. But Libby Seale, a costume seamstress at the same theater, isn't convinced.

Suspicious that Vera's death is connected to the mysterious disappearances of other young performers, she launches her own investigation. And newspaper reporter Peter Eberle is more than happy to help the pretty, quick-witted Libby in her quest. Drawn into a web of smugglers, prostitutes, and white slavers, their amateur sleuthing reveals an unsavory, corrupt side of Portland . . . and nurtures a spark between them that may blossom into much more.