When Kit Alvarez returns from Muscovy, it is to discover that her post as physician at St Thomass hospital has been given to another. Trying to eke out the small income she earns from some of Dr Nu?ezs private patients, she undertakes paid work as a copyist with James Burbages company. But the players companies find themselves under threat. Two of Burbages men are murdered. One of Henslowes men is attacked. And two important new plays go missing, one by Will Shakespeare and one by Christopher Marlowe. Are the thefts merely the work of a jealous unlicensed company? Or is there a conspiracy afoot to use the plays in some more dangerous game?