Sir Robert Carey has just foiled a double plot against King James. He rides for Leith hunting the would-be assassin now identified as Joachim Hochstetter, also known as Jonathan Hepburn. Has he taken ship for the Continent, or ridden nearly 130 miles south and west into England? There at Keswick, his family, originally from Augsburg, runs a mining operation that pays a royalty to Queen Elizabeth in gold. It's ruled by the widow Radagunda Hochstetter, his mother. Sir Robert's other problem? His dour, difficult and now treasonous henchman, Sergeant Henry Dodd, has disappeared somewhere on the snowy moors. Why can't anyone find Dodd's body?

It's late August 1592. Sir Robert Carey, cousin to Queen Elizabeth, remains at his post on the Borders at Carlisle. At last he has been confirmed by his monarch as Deputy Warden, and is still deeply in love with Lady Elizabeth Widdrington while despising her elderly, abusive husband. And he remains estranged from his dour but lethal henchman, Henry Dodd, Land-Sergeant of Gilsland, who is currently serving as one of the sergeants of the Carlisle Castle guard. Sir Robert Cecil, Privy Councillor to the Queen, warns of a new challenge: the King of Spain's "intentions in Scotland." Will Cecil be sending a pursuivant to the Borders to suss out, and possibly interrupt, whatever plots are in progress against England?