Greenwich, 1897: In the small area outside a house on Shooters Hill, a macabre scene is discovered. There has been a vicious fight, and amid the bloodstains and broken glass are torn locks of auburn hair. Thomas Pitt, head of Special Branch, is called: this is the home of Dudley Kynaston, an important minister with access to some of the government's most dangerous secrets, and any inquiry must be handled with utmost discretion. Although an auburn-haired maid is missing from Kynaston's household, with no body and no evidence there is little Pitt can do. Until a corpse, mutilated beyond recognition, is discovered a few weeks later... As Pitt begins to investigate, what he discovers could threaten not just Kynaston's own family, but also his Queen and country.