Under orders from Queen Elizabeth's spymaster, John Dee investigates sedition to determine the loyalty of a Catholic nobleman on the island of Illyria. Dee must overcome legal and reputational worries at home, while his exiled, young assistant becomes more entangled with the people and the prejudices of the island, including an arranged marriage that is not to his liking. Who is to be believed, who is to be trusted in a time of shifting loyalties? That is the question.