After the horrors of war against the forces of Napoleon and the hardships of guarding convicts in Australia, ex-soldier Gregory Hardiman is enjoying the quiet life of an ostler at a Cambridge coaching inn, with only the occasional nightmare to disturb his sleep, and memories of lost loves to disturb his waking hours. But when the inn's cook is found drowned in the river in the spring of 1825 and his distraught widow pleads for help, Gregory finds...