1601 Queen Elizabeth I dies without leaving an heir. The leading candidate for the throne is King James VI of Scotland, but there is one problem. The Queen's spies - hardened by long religious wars - fear that James is not who he says he is. He claims to be faithful to Protestantism, but perhaps secretly professes Catholicism, in which case forty years of suffering will be in vain, which threatens further bloodshed. Time is running out, and London is faced with an almost impossible question: how to check what Jacob truly believes? And then the queen's spy Geoffrey Belloc finds a way to penetrate the soul of the future king. He hires Mahmoud Ezzedine, a Muslim doctor who was a victim of intrigue in his homeland and abandoned in England during the last diplomatic embassy from the Ottoman Empire. Ezzedine is a stranger on this cold and rainy island. Local feuds do not matter to him, and he will do everything to return home to his wife and son.