New Orleans of 1872 is a city ruled by the dead, but nevertheless offers a safe haven for seventeen-year-old Celine Rousseau, forced to flee her life as a Parisian dressmaker. The sisters of the Ursuline convent take Celine in and soon she is infatuated with the city's glitzy underworld of La Cour des Lions. She even catches the eye of the group's leader, Sébastien Saint Germain. Then, the body of a girl from the convent is found in Sébastien's lair.