1324. A disastrous autumn looms large, for as the leaves begin to fall, there are those who wish to bring the Kingdom down as well. In Dartmouth, a man is found lying dead in the road. But the inhabitants of this little haven dismiss his death as a drunken accident, their attentions turned to more worrying matters--piracy. A ship, the St. John, has been discovered, half-ravaged and the crew missing, in an attack that bears all the hallmarks of the supposedly disbanded Lyme Pirates. Could this be the beginning of a vicious onslaught, or is something even more sinister happening? Sir Baldwin Furnshill has been told by Bishop Stapledon of spies being sent to the great traitor Roger Mortimer. If this is true and messages are reaching Mortimer, civil war in England is inevitable. And so the Kingdom's most powerful and ruthless men demand that Baldwin and Bailiff Simon Puttock uncover the truth, and quickly. This is to be the most important investigation of their lives: fail and they will be executed. Succeed and there will be others ready to silence them forever…