"Roger felt a freezing dew break out upon his forehead. The net was over him it seemed; in vain he told himself that he could establish his identity. His head was worth forty pounds to the vile creatures at the stair foot, and once in their clutches who knew if he could ever communicate with his friends? . . . Gaolers and pursuivants alike fattened on the traffic in human life and divided the spoils. Judges were as careless as callous."

Young Roger Dicconson returns from his education abroad to start a new life in his native country. He finds a world of suspicion, uneasy under a usurping king, where justice is bought and sold and Catholics especially live in the shadow of the net. He wins through his first perils and finds new friends, but soon his brother and neighbors are thrown in prison, in danger of their lives. He faces a desperate venture: he may be able to expose the plot against them-but if he cannot save them, he will share their fate.