After years of work, Chicago readies for the opening of the 1893 World's Fair. As engineers race to put the finishing touches on the fairgrounds - a 600-acre modern marvel meant to memorialise the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' discovery of the New World - an evil con man prepares a personal welcoming campaign. Herman Webster Mudgett, better known as charismatic doctor and infamous killer H.H. Holmes, lures visitors to his own playground, a blocklong structure later nicknamed `The Murder Castle'. Under the guise of a hotel, the building is designed to trap Holmes' prey, with stairways to nowhere, doors that open onto brick walls, and sealed `death rooms'. Before long, the doctor makes victims mysteriously vanish, never to be seen again.