Luke Tremayne, Cromwell’s most trusted agent adjusts to life changing events. Cromwell is dead, and the army which kept England united is disintegrating. Luke resigns from government service, marries a vivacious widow, takes up a vast estate in Yorkshire, and is appointed a local magistrate. He is immediately confronted with the disappearance of his steward and becomes obsessed with two cold cases- a child murder and arson. Other murders follow and the activities of a likeable criminal, a pagan cult, a powerful witch and the possibility of a royalist uprising complicate his magisterial investigations.