April 1193. England`s King Richard Lionheart languishes in a German prison, and treason scents the air. Richard`s younger brother, John, seizes Windsor Castle, and Dowager Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine summons her trusted personal "queen`s man", Justin de Quincy, to do the impossible - mediate a truce with her rebel son. Amid such fateful events, the murder of a Welsh peddler`s daughter seems small. But the cruel demise of the beautiful Melangell so troubles Justin that not even a threatened French invasion can keep him from investigating her death. Yet can he bring Melangell`s craven killer to justice?