The date is September 1538. Having been left a widower by Jane Seymour's death, Henry VIII is looking for a new wife. Cromwell has put forward the Princess of Cleves, a marriage which will bring Henry an alliance with the Protestant princes of Europe. Meanwhile near to Nicholas Peverell's Sussex estate, the body of a young girl is found washed up on the shore. At first it is feared she has taken her own life but, in his capacity as justice of the peace, Nicholas soon comes to the conclusion that Sarah Bowman has been murdered. A skilled needlewoman, Sarah had worked at the nearby Augustinian priory of Monksmere until Henry had ransacked the monasteries and ordered their dissolution. But, despite a hefty reward offered for information regarding Sarah's murder, the people of Monksmere seem reluctant to talk, especially about anything regarding the former occupants of the priory - the mysterious order of clerics known as the Black Canons