Dorset, 1642. When bloody civil war breaks out between the king and Parliament, Jayne Swift, a Dorset physician from a Royalist family, offers her services to both sides in the conflict, regardless of belief. Herecurring companion at every event is a man she should despise because he embraces civil war as the means to an end. She knows him as William Harrier, but is ignorant about every other aspect of his life. His past is a mystery and his future uncertain.