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Story
London’s East End, 1888
Having recently been thrown out by her husband, Polly contemplates her new life on the street. She enters a dosshouse where a vulnerable group of women live, run by Maud and her granddaughter Mary.
4pm, the women go to work selling their bodies. The Commissioner of Police approaches Maud, requesting a ‘fresh parcel’. Maud confirms she can supply him with what he wants, Mary’s daughter Magpie.
Sergeant Strong arrives at the dosshouse to report Martha Tabram has been murdered. Catherine and Liz arrive, having just earnt a large amount of money posing for a photographer. Polly sets out into the night to find one more customer. Polly is consumed by darkness, Magpie sees everything.
News spreads that Polly has been murdered and Annie is missing. Fear spreads through the group…
Catherine has returned to the photographer’s house, where she stumbles across autopsy photographs of Polly and Annie. Believing she is in the hands of the Ripper, she attacks him and flees. Catherine and Liz are consumed by the darkness.
The community await the verdict on the death of Catherine and Liz. The pathologist offers his opinion on the nature of the killer, the mob is roused and wrongly identify Squibby, a young man from the local knacker’s yard, as the killer and beat him to death.
Mary and Magpie flee from Maud and the dosshouse, escaping to a hideout Magpie has been using. Together they fall asleep. Alone in the darkness, Mary awakes to find Magpie is gone. As she realises her moment of death has arrived, she enters the darkness defiantly.
