In 1812, the reform-minded Bishop of London is found bludgeoned to death in a church crypt. Beside him lies the remains of another man killed decades earlier, and Sebastian must determine why the bishop entered the sealed vault and how the two deaths are connected.
The trail leads from Smithfield and clerical rivalries to Whitehall and the guarded history of Sebastian's own family. What begins as an ecclesiastical murder becomes an inquiry into identity, inheritance and a secret capable of changing Sebastian's understanding of his birth.