Trapped in a violent marriage to Sir Fulk de Enderby, a veteran of the wars against Robert the Bruce, Lady Johanna FitzHenry has one last chance to escape. If a stranger can be found who is willing to swear to a court that she was secretly wed to him before her match to Fulk, Johanna will be set free. Gervase de Laval, a fleeing bounty hunter, is discovered on FitzHenry land and made an offer he cannot refuse. Pose as Johanna's long-lost love or he and his badly wounded companion will be hanged as traitors. Forced to play out the masquerade, the two conspirators are drawn into a dangerous web of deceit that reaches the highest echelons of the English court.