Litchester Cathedral, usually an oasis of cloistered calm, suddenly finds itself at the centre of an acrimonious dispute over the proposed sale of its 1225 copy of the Magna Carta.
Merchant banker Mark Treasure is invited down to sort out the squabbling cathedral chapter. But even as he journeys down to Litchester a fire destroys the ecclesiastical library - Magna Carta and all - and a body is discovered in the debris.
But it wasn't fire that killed the Dean's verger. And as Treasure's murder investigation unravels evidence of some most unholy mayhem and dark skulduggery, he realises that Litchester is a place where sins and secrets abound . . .