Joaquim Vanderas, degenerate and supreme swordsman, has come to Great Britain, hired by English Royalists to take on the armies of Parliament. He has done so before—years past, in the first outbreak of civil war—and the Roundheads remember his atrocities better than he himself. Taken prisoner, he faces the noose. A surprise development spares him: Charles Stuart is on the run. The Roundheads' general offers pardon, and Vanderas is only happy to hunt down a king. But on meeting a mysterious Irishwoman he finds that he is not the only pawn among the ranks—nor the most dangerous.