After a brilliant military career, bravely serving crown and country in India, esteemed General Thaddeus Carlyon finally meets death, not in the frenzy of battle, but at an elegant London dinner party. In a bizarre incident that shocks aristocratic London. General Carlyon is killed in what first appears to be a freak accident. But the General's beautiful wife, Alexandra, readily confesses that she killed him - a story she clings to even under the shadow of the gallows.

Investigator Thomas Monk, nurse Hester Latterly, and brilliant Oliver Rathbone, counsel for the defense, work feverishly to break down the wall of silence raised by the accused and her husband's proud family; and with the trial only days away they inch toward the dark and appalling heart of the mystery.