London, 1546. A turning point in the fate of the entire English nation...At one time, lawyer Matthew Shardlake promised himself never to get involved in dangerous political matters. For several years he actually managed to stay away from palace intrigues. But again Queen Catherine Parr, wife of King Henry VIII, turned to Matthew with a plea for help. The trouble could not be more serious: the manuscript of her book, in which she discussed subtle issues of religion, disappeared from Catherine’s chest. For a suspicious and angry husband, the mere fact that she wrote such a book without his knowledge is enough - in the eyes of the king, this is infidelity, and Henry does not forgive anyone for this. And Shardlake began searching for the missing manuscript, the theft of which was clearly ordered by a high-ranking official who dreamed of destroying the queen. This means that both Catherine and the lawyer himself are in mortal danger...