Oliver Cromwell is dead, and the threat of Civil War looks once more. Abroad, the exiled Royalists set in motion an intricately-plotted plan aimed at putting a Stuart King back on the English throne.

Under cover of the scheme, which will use organised Civil unrest to alarm the public, one of the intriguers is accumulating huge swathes of land by illegal means. Topping the list of this shadowy figure is the Hafod Estate of the Margam dynasty, located in the heart of the Valleys of South Wales, trying desperately to recover from the debilating taxes imposed on those who opposed Parliament in the war.

Alain Daguerre, orphaned but taken in by the Margam's, stumbles unwittingly into the conspiracy, and only his well-taught skills in weapon training and the brute militancy of his cousin William keeps him from serious harm. However, in his naive eagerness to play a part in a perceived anti-government plot, he finds himsef dragged into further bewildering intrigues, where friend and foe are not necessarily what they seem, placing his entire family in the utmost danger as a consequence.

There is murder, rape, pillaging and kidnapping littering his path, and only his questioning and inquisitive mind helps him to untangle the web of deceit that threatens to destroy him and those he loves. Along the way, he is forced to look deep into his soul to find the truth about himself and the parameters of his faith and morality.

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