Echoes of former violence still haunt the northern counties of England.
Davina, a talented fire-eater with a tendency to find trouble, arrives in the ancient city of York on the eve of the princess' arrival. She's just in time to witness the rising tensions between the two feuding great houses of the North—the Archbishop of York, and Percy, Earl of Northumberland.
Hundreds of their armed men flood the streets amid the peasants come to celebrate the Tudor princess' impending marriage to the King of Scotland, and the sparks between them threaten to catch the city ablaze in the fires of wrath and revenge. She and the king's falconer, Lambert Simnel, get caught up in the violence that threatens to destroy a fragile peace… and it may draw someone's attention to her that she does not want: Sir Thomas Lovell, the royal enforcer.
Davina has her own reasons to be in York, and her own secrets to hide…