Sleuths is set roughly 500 years after the world ended. Humanity is still in the process of regaining all that was lost after the End Times, but for the most part things are on the upswing. On one side of what used to be North America stands a cluster of supercities; one of these Cities, Babylon, is home to a struggling amateur detective named Hugo Brooke. In the first book, The Man from Roundtown, Hugo crosses paths with Aedus Belle, a man from a settlement called Roundtown which has managed to survive despite being half a continent away from the rest of humanity. Aedus possesses unique gifts that are invaluable to Hugo as a detective, but the two of them must learn to understand each other before they can work together.