Charlie Holloway has spent five years disguised as a boy in the London slums after her father cast her out for accidentally raising the dead. When she is caught by Lincoln Fitzroy, the cold and mysterious head of the Ministry of Curiosities, she learns that a madman is using necromancy to create monstrous creatures — and she may be the only one who can stop him. Reluctantly, she joins the Ministry's covert team of supernatural investigators.

Charlie is spirited, resourceful, and fiercely loyal — a young woman who survived years on the street through wit and courage. Her necromantic gift makes her both an outsider and irreplaceable, and her frank defiance of Victorian social expectations drives much of the series' tension. She is warm-hearted where Lincoln is cold, and their dynamic is the emotional core of the series.

Across ten books, Charlie grows from a frightened fugitive into a confident operative and vital member of the Ministry, all while navigating a fraught slow-burn romance with the enigmatic Lincoln. The series weaves supernatural mysteries — shape-shifters, rogue spirits, royal conspiracies — into Charlie's evolving identity and her struggle to be accepted in a world that fears her power.