Glasgow 1492. Gil Cunningham remarked later that if he had known he would find a corpse in the university coalhouse, he would never have gone to the Arts Faculty feast. But then, as Alys his betrothed replied, he would never have met Socrates. In this mysterious adventure Gil Cunningham returns to his old university for the Nicholas Feast, where he and his colleagues are entertained by a play presented by some of the students. One of the actors, William Irvine, is later found murdered and Gil, fresh from his success in solving the murder of the harper's quine, is the obvious person to investigate. Assisted by Alys and her French stone-mason father, Pierre, he begins to disentangle a complex web of espionage and blackmail involving William's tutors and fellow students. First one chamber and then another is ransacked and Gil himself is attacked. It appears someone is looking for missing papers and suspicion falls on the University chaplain, a Dominican priest. Oddly, William's wolfhound pup Socrates now becomes a focus for attention and matters are further complicated by the arrival of Gil's formidable mother who is determined to inspect his betrothed. Little do Alys and Gil realise that it will be she who provides the final, vital key to unmask the murderer and lay his motives clear.