When the notorious Dick Turpin is hanged, Charlie Feather is watching and learning. At just fourteen years of age, Charley, an apprentice highwayman, knows that betrayal is common and that a short, brutal life may come to a sudden end on the steps of the gallows. Abandoned at birth, shunted from one "foster mother" to another, streetwise Charley trusts no one - especially when there are dark secrets to keep.