The Battle of Evesham has been fought and lost. The King is triumphant, Simon de Montfort is dead, and Adam de Norton is a prisoner, stripped of everything he once honoured and prized.

Escaping from captivity in the grim castle of Beeston, Adam becomes a fugitive in a country in turmoil. Branded a king's enemy, he can be slain with impunity.

Together with the widowed Joane de Bohun, Adam flees across a bleak winter landscape, evading both pursuing royal troops and a desperate band of outlaws to seek shelter with a surviving rebel force in the north. But when the rebels are beaten once again, only one place in the land still holds out defiantly against the king: Kenilworth Castle, the mightiest fortress in England.

Joining the garrison of Kenilworth as it prepares for one of the most epic sieges in English history, Adam finds dangerous foes both inside and outside the walls. But as the siege grows ever more brutal, he must decide between a valiant defence and a still more perilous bid for freedom.