Summer, 1545. England is at war. Henry VIII's invasion of France has gone badly and a massive French fleet is preparing to sail across the Channel. As the English fleet gathers at Portsmouth, the country raises the largest militia army it has ever seen. The King has debased the currency to pay for the war, and England is in the grip of an economic crisis. Meanwhile Matthew Shardlake is asked to investigate claims of "monstrous wrongs" committed against a young ward of the court, which have already involved one mysterious death. Shardlake finds himself in a city preparing to become a war zone; and he takes the opportunity to also investigate the mysterious past of a young woman incarcerated in Bedlam Hospital.
