It's September 1592, and the dark streets of London are full of people up to no good. The redoubtable Sergeant Dodd and that dashing Elizabethan gunslinger Sir Robert Carey are in London where Carey's powerful father, Lord Henry Hunsdon, wants him to solve the mystery of a corpse that has washed up from the Thames River onto Her Majesty's privy steps. Meanwhile, Sergeant Dodd is plotting how to take suitable revenge for his mistreatment by the Queen's Vice Chamberlain, Thomas Heneage. But no lawyer will sue against such a dangerous courtier-until a mysterious stranger offers help with suspicious eagerness. Now, Sergeant Dodd has to help Carey find the identity of the corpse and its murderer, while bringing a little taste of the Borders to his dealings with Heneage.