In 1850s Australia, Jack Dawkins has remade himself from the Artful Dodger, a gifted pickpocket, into a skilled surgeon. But his carefully built new life is threatened when Fagin, an old acquaintance from his criminal past, reappears and draws him back toward the underworld. Caught between reinvention, betrayal, redemption, love, and the illicit life he still secretly craves, Jack must rely on every bit of his artfulness.