Like his father and brother before him, Julian Hawke is a well-respected London goldsmith-and an informant for Elizabeth Tudor's Spymaster. But he craves the challenge of a more significant role in espionage. As part of a plan to trap the imprisoned Mary of Scotland in treasonous activities, he is sent to France as a double agent. His mission is to deliver false documents to the exiled Thomas Morcant, one of the Scottish queen's stalwart supporters and a suspect in the attempted murder of Julian's brother.
Things go awry in Paris when Julian meets Morcant's sister. He is drawn to her but assumes she has come to France as a courier for Mary.
Sara Morcant has traveled to Paris in a last-ditch effort to dissuade her older brother from involvement in the plot to put the Scottish queen on the English throne. She finds herself falling for Julian Hawke but, when she discovers he has met with her brother, fears he must be a courier for the traitors plotting Elizabeth's overthrow.
Untangling the web of intrigue in which they are mired could implicate them both in the deadly plot to assassinate Elizabeth Tudor and lead to arrest and execution.