1592: Sir Robert Carey has at last escaped from London, leaving Sergeant Dodd to follow him to Oxford - once he has finished taking his revenge on Vice Chamberlain Heneage.

Carey is hoping to see the Queen when she makes her Ceremonial Entry to the University town. He also urgently needs to talk to his lord, the Earl of Essex, but finds that the Queen has an extremely delicate and dangerous task which she insists Carey must perform for her immediately.

The trouble is, Dodd has disappeared without trace, somewhere on the road to Oxford. Also Carey has somehow drunk poison at a ball arranged by his friend the Earl of Cumberland.