In 1376, the famed Black Prince dies of a terrible rotting sickness, closely followed by his father, King Edward III, who ends his life a bitter old man, his former glories forgotten. The crown of England is left in the hands of a mere boy, the future Richard II. And the great nobles, led by Richard's uncle and Regent, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, gather like hungry wolves round the empty throne.

A terrible power struggle threatens the country, and the prelates of the church and the powerful merchant princes of London are soon drawn in. One of these, Sir Thomas Springall, is foully murdered within a few days of the old king's death.

Sir John Cranston, the Falstaffian coroner of the City of London, is ordered to investigate. He is assisted by Brother Athelstan, a Dominican monk working in the slums of Southwark as a penance. Their investigations take them from the sinister secrets of Nightshade House in the slums of Whitefriars to the barbaric splendour of the English court. As others associated with Spingall are found brutally murdered, Cranston and Athelstan are drawn ever deeper into a dark web of intrigue...