Together, they run an orphanage financed by wealthy spinster Lavinia Bidlow (Olivia Williams), and face threats to their existence from multiple sources throughout society. There's Maladie, a serial killer giving the Touched a bad name around London. Then there's the mysterious Dr. Edmund Hague (Denis O'Hare), rounding up the Touched for his disturbing experiments. And then there's the government: stodgy old white men who mostly despised women and their quest for equal rights anyway—even before some women began to have superpowers. Subplots abound, as well: there's the underground sex club run by party boy Lord Hugo Swann, plus Detective Frank Mundi (Ben Chaplin) with his bad reputation and connection to the Touched opera singer, Mary Brighton (Eleanor Tomlinson).