The civil war that is tearing England asunder in the year 1643 has not yet touched Dorcas Slythe, a secretly rebellious young Puritan woman living in the countryside south of London. She aches to escape the safe, pious tyranny of her father -- and the opportunity appears with the arrival of Toby Lazender, dashing scion of a powerful royalist family, who awakens her to her passionate destiny. Her adventure truly begins with the discovery of an intricately wrought gold seal -- one of four that, when joined, will reveal a great secret. Suddenly grave danger lies before her -- not from Cromwell's advancing armies, but from relentless enemies who covet the great treasure to which she now holds the key.