Summer 1545. France is pulling an armada of its ships to the shores of Albion. England is in danger, and King Henry VIII, despite the crisis engulfing the country, is spending his last cash reserves to confront the enemy. Matthew Shardlake, with his faithful assistant Jack Barrack, on behalf of Queen Catherine Parr, goes to Portsmouth, the most vulnerable of the cities, located in close proximity to the French naval guns. Shardlake's assignment is not easy: we must find out everything about a certain young man, a pupil of the royal court, and why his former teacher, who visited the estate of the pupil's foster family, unexpectedly committed suicide... In the world of literary heroes and in the minds of today's reader, the image of Matthew Shardlake occupies a place of honor alongside such famous characters as Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Nero Wolfe and Commissioner Maigret.