New Year's 1474 finds Roger the Chapman collapsed with fever after wandering the roads of Western England peddling his wares amidst December's snow and freezing rain. Sheer exhaustion forces him to rest in the home of the widow Margaret Walker and her daughter, Lillis, in the ancient trading port of Bristol.

Roger awakens, weakened but on the road to recovery, to find himself in the middle of yet another mystery. His kind hostesses, who have nursed him gently back to health, will not hear of him leaving the comfort of their modest cottage until spring. But Roger's keen senses soon detect the shadow of tragedy looming over the house: The two women seem mistrusted by villagers and uneasy even at home.

Coaxing the story from them, he learns that Margaret's father vanished last year, and was presumed dead. A man was hanged for his murder, but not two months later the old man wandered back into town, unable to account for his disappearance.

Prompted either by his own grateful (and restless) nature or by the importance of keeping busy under the amorous eyes of Lillis, Roger vows to root out the evil at work in the Walker home. He puts his God-given talent for solving mysteries to good use, once more unravelling the complex web before him: a town plagued by secret allegiances and rivalries among its merchants, churchmen, and ruling family.