The mutilated bodies of young men from prominent London families are left in public places with strange objects in their mouths. When another victim is found beside the House of Lords, Sebastian is asked to interpret the ritual pattern before the killer claims the next heir.
With Tom, Paul Gibson and Kat Boleyn, Sebastian follows the victims' connections from Mayfair and banking houses to Thames docks and a Kentish parsonage. A poem and a concealed episode from the past reveal why the sons are being punished for what their fathers did.