January 1793. France has executed its king, and war on Britain is declared one month later. Set against this volatile backdrop is the first in a series of cases and adventures for 26 year-old Yorkshire attorney, John Eagle. Struggling to establish his practice after the death of his curmudgeonly partner, John balances mainstream legal business with assisting local magistrate, Sir Walter Stanhope, who relies on his brains when dealing with weighty matters. Sir Henry Ibbetson, prominent Leeds merchant and fellow JP, has been found mysteriously dead, run through with his own sword on Sir Walter's land. It's a case for the Leeds authorities, yet Sir Walter, using John's talents, insists on investigating the murder himself. But what does he have to hide and why is he pushing his sleuthing prodigy in a single direction which John discovers to be false? It soon transpires that a number of individuals have cause for wanting the rich merchant dead. Among an overlapping mosaic of suspects, including the murdered man's son, disgruntled relatives of sentenced felons, local radicals hell-bent on fermenting revolution, the young attorney, thwarted on all sides, resolves to go it alone.