It is
August 1849. It is a morning on which a war might have started...
In a small rectory in Ireland, with his wife, Eliza, and younger daughter,
Theodora, away in London, Dr John Drew has finally found the peace and quiet to
work on the cuneiform inscription of Darius the Great from the palace at
Persepolis, in Persia. But now…
Westmacott, his fellow translator, has abandoned him…Bridget, the maid, has run out on him because of some cow
skulls…
Judith, his older daughter, has secretly eloped with a
local Catholic farmer…
And Fox Keegan, a murder suspect, comes calling…