Set in the Elizabethan era, Isabelle is working as an apothecary's assistant in London, having run from her husband, Nicholas, six years earlier. An attempt to poison the queen sets an investigation in motion which brings Nicholas (part of Walsingham's spy-ring) to investigate and in doing so find his wife again. There's a romance and a mystery, an evil mother-in-law, and witchcraft. The narration is decent, but not spectacular.