Oliver Cromwell is dead and Civil War looms once more. A Stuart king back on the English throne. Abroad, the exiled Royalists set in motion an intricately plotted plan aimed at putting civil unrest to alarm the population, one of the intriguers is steadily accumulating huge swathes of land by illegal means. Topping the list of this shadow Under cover of the plot, which uses organized by figure is the Hafod Estate of the Margam dynasty located in the heart of the Monmouth shire valleys, desperately trying to recover from the burden of debilating taxes imposed on those who opposed Parliament in the war. Alain Daguerre, orphaned but taken in by the Margams, stumbles unwittingly into the conspiracy and only his well-taught skills in weapons training and the brute militancy of his cousin William keeps him from serious harm. However, his nave eagerness to play a part in a perceived anti-government plot only serves to drag him further into bewildering intrigues, where friends and foes are not necessarily what they seem, and conspire to place his whole family in utmost danger. Weaving in and out of the plot are his ardently willful cousin, Ceridwen, the cynical under-Sheriff of the county, Twm Shenkins, the Du Bari children, Simon and Bronwen, heavily involved in Catholic chicanery, a mysterious visitor, Richard Hamilton, with a well-camouflaged past, and a giant, hook-handed paid assassin, Struan McCheyne with a penchant for debauchery. Others contributing to the tale include Rula, a gypsy girl with strange powers rescued from a dire fate by Alain and a persecuted Quaker group also with a debt of thanks to pay. There is murder, rape, pillaging, a kidnapping and treasonable activity littering his path, and it is only his questioning, inquisitive mind that can untangle the web of deceit that threaten to destroy him and those he loves. Along the way he is forced to look deep into his soul to find the truth about himself and the parameters of his faith and morality.
