The year is 1861. The American Civil War has just begun, and London arms dealer Daniel Alberton is becoming a very wealthy man. The quiet dinner party held by Alberton and his wife seems remote indeed from the passions rending America. Yet investigator William Monk and his bride, Hester, sense growing tensions and barely concealed violence in this well-appointed mansion. For two of the guests are Americans, each vying to buy Alberton's armaments. Soon Monk and Hester's forebodings are fulfilled, as bodies turn up dead, or disappear--along with Alberton's entire inventory of weapons.