"Elizabeth Mann, plagued by self-destructive habits, thinks leaving New York will solve her problems. Taking a travel-writing assignment to London, she encounters the skeleton of the famous 18th-century criminal Jonathan Wild in an obscure museum. Her burgeoning preoccupation with the thief is briefly interrupted by an encounter with Gideon Streetcar, an infertility specialist and lover-to-be. Then Streetcar presents her with the memoirs of Jonathan Wild's second wife, Mary.".

"Absorbed in the journals, which have been painstakingly restored by a British Library technician, Elizabeth discovers that Wild's first wife was also named Elizabeth Mann. Further tantalized by this coincidence, Elizabeth's obsession with Wild consumes her completely, and with Gideon's expert assistance, she concocts a plan whereby she can give birth to the infamous man's child. She soon shows signs of pregnancy."--BOOK JACKET.