1322: When a prominent money-lender is found murdered a month before Lord Hugh de Courtenay's tournament, Sir Baldwin Furnshill and Bailiff Simon Puttock find themselves on the trail of a sinister killer.

On their way to a great feast, Sir Baldwin Furnshill and Bailiff Simon Puttock pass by a clearing in the woods where they find the murdered corpse of Sir Gilbert. The situation is confounded when a decapitated body is found. Baldwin and Simon find themselves caught up in a baffling investigation.