It is the spring of 1297, and young wife Margaret Kerr is desperately afraid. Her merchant husband Roger has been missing since Martinmas. Has he been caught up in the swelling rebellion against the English? Is he even alive?

Jack Sinclair, her husband's cousin and factor, has pledged to try to locate Roger in the city. When he is found stabbed to death, Margaret resolves she must ride to Edinburgh herself to uncover the truth.

But Scotland is a country at war, Edinburgh an occupied city. With English soldiers patrolling the streets, it is no place for a woman alone. Margaret's mission is frowned upon, her arrival at her uncle's tavern unwelcome. And when she starts to ask questions she finds a city rife with closely guarded secrets and dangerous loyalties. Soon violence erupts outside the tavern and there is murder on their doorstep. Margaret discovers how little she had known either of Roger or Jack...