1895. Members of the East Coast elite have died under mysterious circumstances. To investigate this delicate problem, Richard Clayton-against the wishes of the President-calls upon a man named Morton Chapel for his unorthodox methods and peculiar associates. As they begin to uncover strange, vanishing marks on people's bodies, unexplained changes in behaviour and hints of widespread corruption, the team reforms around the name Ulysses S. Grant himself gave it years earlier: his SPecialists in the Odd and the OCcult-his SPOOKS.