Luke's first mission for the incoming King is to investigate the administration of an aging autocratic peer who is also a purveyor of magic. This marquis is undermined by a rebellious son who openly supports the work of an outlawed Catholic priest-and indulges in shady land deals. Luke's investigation confronts a defrocked Anglican vicar, several promiscuous women and a series of murders whose motives may lie in the present, or in the distant past.