When Mistress Rosamond Jaffrey is summoned to her childhood home for "a matter of life and death," she expects to find her foster mother, Lady Susanna Appleton, at death's door. What she finds instead is far more dangerous--a childhood friend, accused of a murder she did not commit, with nowhere else to turn. Godlina Walkenden stands accused of murdering her brother-in-law in order to avoid an arranged marriage to a loathsome Italian silk merchant and turns to Rosamond to prove her innocence and save her from execution. In order to find out who the real murderer is and set Lina free, Rosamond, with help from her husband and Lady Appleton, must navigate a treacherous path and avoid the emissaries of the enigmatic Sir Francis Walsingham.