York, December 1374. The city is preparing for the enthronement of Alexander Neville as archbishop when two bodies are found in the Minster grounds and a fair-haired singer is discovered locked inside the chapter house. Owen Archer must establish how the youth and the deaths are connected before the Neville household arrives.
The return of an enigmatic man from Owen's past in France deepens the mystery, and a third corpse recovered from the river suggests that the killings have been planned across several locations. With church ceremony, family influence and old military loyalties all constraining the inquiry, Owen must uncover why the singer was hidden and who fears what he may reveal.