Max Brandon is receiving bills for services he never ordered and goods he did not buy. (In 250 years' time, this will be called identity theft – but Max doesn't know that.) What he does know is that, for reasons he can't begin to guess, some unknown person is targeting him personally.
And when the games move closer to home, almost forcing him to fight a duel – when they draw in Frances Pendleton, a lady he never expected to see again – Max vows to catch the man behind them, no matter what the cost.
The result is a haphazard chase involving ruined abbeys, a hunt for hermits, a grotesque portrait … and a love story which, but for this odd trick of fate, might never have been given a second chance.