In the autumn of 1703, a great gale ripped through London. Many were killed, among them Joan Fletcher, the shrewish wife of Alan Fletcher, an ironmonger. But the savage blow that split her head points to more suspicious circumstances. Surreptitiously, George Man, a young parish watchman, trails the ironmonger through the dangerous back streets while the storm rages on. And as Fletcher¹s secret life emerges, a web of intrigue is uncovered, stretching from the brothels of Westminster to a brickworks owned by Daniel Defoe—who Man realizes holds the key to the murder, if only he can be found.