Imprisoned in the Tower of London, Thomas Phelippes is informed that there is one thing that might give him his freedom back: He must tell King James everything he knows about his friend, Kit Marlowe, who was killed outside an inn in Deptford many years ago. Everyone knew that Marlowe had been a writer, but he had also been a spy, helping Sir Francis Walsingham protect Elizabethan England from Catholic plots and an ever-present threat of invasion from Spain. But why is the king so fascinated with Marlowe—and does Phelippes know enough to secure his own redemption?