Will Scarlet learns of the brutal murder of his childhood sweetheart, Lady Phillipa Wearie, and of her infant son. Asked to intervene, Countess Lydia decides to send Scarlet, Maid Marion, Sir Palomides, and a crusading friend of Lord Wearie’s to Macclesfield to investigate the murders. But Scarlet finds it difficult to operate in his home town, where he himself is wanted for the murder of his father’s steward committed eight years earlier. The Countess also warns Robin Hood of a threat from Sir Guy of Gisbourne, who has been gathering an army and is plundering the villages of northern Sherwood, claiming they are Robin Hood’s men. Clearly intent on destroying both Robin’s outlaw band and the Countess’s power, Gisbourne is essentially daring Robin to come after him. After rescuing his own camp from a group of Gisbourne’s followers, Robin must trust one of the least trustworthy of them to lead him to Gisbourne himself. And when Scarlet and Palomides discover their killer, they arrive back at Peveril Castle to find it besieged—and Robin Hood about to be slaughtered before the castle gates, and before the eyes of both the Countess and Maid Marion.