Taking eleven months after the event of Gotham by Gaslight, Bruce Wayne has retired the cape and cowl of the Batman. However, there are some people who longs for the vigilante in protecting the city again: Bruce's fiancé Julie Madison, a woman who runs Gotham City's Orphan Relief Fund and was saved by Batman from a group of thugs. And James Gordon, now police commissioner of Gotham's police force after his predecessor Tolliver became mayor of the city, is displeased of Tolliver spending the city's budget on the city's upcoming twenty century exposition during the city's economic crisis and worried of attracting the worst of criminals from across the country meaning he have to stretch the police forces' capacity without the help of the Batman.