The moment her friend Sir Walter Pendennis comes to call carrying his wife's crimson cloak over one arm, Susanna senses something terrible has happened - and she's not mistaken. Sir Walter's wife Eleanor, has been trampled by runaway horses, and her dying confession reveals that she has been involved in a plot to overthrow Queen Elizabeth and replace her with Mary, Queen of Scots. Since the lady's co-conspirators have no idea she is dead, Walter proposes a daring plan: Susanna will impersonate his late wife and take her place among the traitors. Now, caught in a web of treachery, deceit, and double-crosses, where there is a turncoat in the shadows who knows more than she does....and who will stop at nothing to silence her forever..