Boston, 1662. Mary Deerfield is the second wife of Thomas Deerfield, a man as cruel as he is powerful. When Thomas drives a three-tined fork into the back of Mary's hand, she resolves that she must divorce him to save her life. But in a world where every neighbor is watching for signs of the devil, a woman like Mary --- who harbors secret desires and finds it difficult to tolerate the brazen hypocrisy of so many men in the colony --- soon becomes herself the object of suspicion and rumor. When tainted objects are discovered buried in Mary's garden, when a boy she has treated with herbs and simples dies, and when their servant girl runs screaming in fright from her home, Mary must fight to escape not only her marriage, but also the gallows.