'I am Calumny Spinks. Between me and the satin blue sky hangs the hempen noose. It has swung there in the faintest of breezes, waiting for me, all my life.' In 1688, torn by rebellions, England lives under the threat of a Dutch invasion. Redheaded Calumny Spinks is the lowliest man in an Essex backwater: half-French and still unapprenticed at seventeen, yet he dreams of wealth and title. When his father's violent past resurfaces, Calumny's desperation leads him to flee to London and become a coffee racketeer. He has just three months to pay off a blackmailer and save his father's life - but his ambition and talent for mimicry pull him into a conspiracy against the King himself.