A man with one eye is trying to kill young Will Marsden. All Will wants is to get to Stratford where William Shakespeare has promised him work, but somebody seems to think he has important information. And when Shakespeare's daughter Judith is kidnapped, Will and his friend Meg discover that the world of the theatre is not what it seems. Certain actors are spying on their countrymen, on the orders of the queen herself...It takes Will's courage, Meg's ingenuity and the genius of Shakespeare himself to get out of the desperate plot they find themselves mixed up in.