One year after Darwin's explosive publication of The Origin of Species, sisters Anna and Beatrice Pentecost awaken to a world shattered by science, radicalism, and the stirrings of feminist rebellion--a world of charismatic religious movements, Spiritualist séances, bitter loss, and medical trauma. Historical figures of the Victorian epoch wander through the backdrop of the novel, as Anna's anomalous love for Lore Ritter and her friendship with freethinking and ambitious Miriam Sala carry her into areas of uncharted desire; while Beatrice, forced to choose between her beloved Will Anwyl and the evangelist Christian Ritter, is pulled between passion and duty. Each is torn by inner contradictions, but who will survive when the sisters fall into a fatal conflict with one another?