Jonathan Blackthorne--known to his adoring public as the Amazing Blackthorne, Magician Extraordinaire--and his beloved, brilliant inventor Lady Rose Blakeney-Barrington, are both members of D.I.R.E., the Damocles Institute of Research and Exploration. When London is invaded by the walking dead, they must work with other members--Edgar Allan Poe, Sir Richard Burton, Michael Farraday and Charles Babbage--to quell the tide of living death.