On a dank and foggy November evening in 1796 a Royal Mail Coach on its way from Hull to York is stopped by two highwaymen. One of the passengers is abducted. Two weeks later the headless body of a man is discovered beneath a hedge in the same locality. In the following weeks more headless bodies are discovered. A constable from the town of Hull and his bookseller friend Nicholas Twygge are asked by the Sheriff and Aldermen to investigate the deaths. Their trail takes them to Hamburg where they find themselves embroiled in events which threaten them and the peaceful lives of the residents of Hull. Europe-wide murders are being perpetrated in the midst of the political turmoil and fanaticism of the French Revolution.