The action of this book begins immediately after the end of The Cuckoo Tree when Dido Twite having foiled a Hanoverian attempt to slide St Pauls Cathedral into the Thames has assisted at the coronation of King Richard IV (son of James III) and returned to Sussex. Now she is kidnapped and her friends fear the worst - it looks as if fate has dealt her a final deadly blowa But Dido is not easily defeated!Joan Aiken is such a spellbinder that it all rings true' - Evening Standard