When her daily routine of servitude is shattered by the murder of a fellow servant, seventeenth-century chambermaid Lucy Campion battles legal obstacles, plague-infected crowds, and a brutal killer to prove her wrongly accused brother's innocence.

"Lucy Campion, formerly a ladies' maid in the local magistrate's household, has now found gainful employment as a printer's apprentice. On a freezing winter afternoon in 1667, she accompanies the magistrate's daughter, Sarah, to the home of a severely injured Quaker man to record his dying words, a common practice in 17th century England. The man, having been trampled by a horse and cart the night before, only has a few hours left to live. Lucy scribbles...