Norwich is alive with the news that Richard de Fontenel - a ruthless robber baron - is himself the victim of theft. The two golden elephants he promished to the beautiful Adelaide if she agreed to marry him have disappeared, and so has his steward, Hermer. For Ralph Delchard and Gervase Bret, Domesday Commissioners, trying to adjudicate a land dispute involving de Fontenel and Mauger - a man also trying to woo Adelaide - it is a disaster. De Fontenel refuses to co-operate until the elephants are found.

But is Hermer the thief or has something altogether more sinister happened? And, how did de Fontenel come to be in possession of the exquisite elephants? In Ralph and Gervase's most baffling and terrifying case yet, nothing is what it seems and no one is free from suspicion, not even the fair Adelaide...