Joseph Kovack, a novice priest, is amidst a bitter and adulterous divorce and subsequent homelessness. He battles with his faith, eroded by the horrors of his past. Georgie and Winfred Cairn are near their natural demise, and know their death will damn their souls for eternity. Illicit lovers Jessica and Robert traipse the streets, looking for somewhere to escape to, away from the condemnation of their families. Detective Inspector Shields battles with a deteriorating society, his declining health and an approaching retirement which he is not sure he wants. The events in their lives will draw them all to a Victorian tenement, where Irene and Dominic Karp, an unsavory pair of landlords, take in the desperate and the lonely. The battle for their souls takes place behind the facade of this dismal Victorian building. Human weakness may prove to be the ultimate failing, as they are enslaved and seduced by an ancient evil - a gross and predatory seductress born out of the ashes of Babylon. Their only hope will lay with Kemble, an elderly and kindly Bishop, whose only battle with the dark side to date has been with powerful sermons on a Sunday morning in his parish church...