Robert Carey flees the stultifying court of his cousin Queen Elizabeth for the border town of Carlisle, where he takes up the appintment of Deputy Warden in a wild and lawless area. There he meets his sister, as well as the married woman he loves, and becomes acquainted with one Sergeant Dodd who has just discovered the murdered body of the son of a feared local reiver who blames Dodd for the killing. With horses hard to come by, somebody's planning something. Carey enacts a bold, not to say daft, plan to discover what's going on and possibly find the real killer.