Follows the life of high-spirited and independent Hugh Kenrick, as he struggles with the constraints of his aristocratic ancestry, and ultimately jeapordizes his own safety when he joins a secret society of freethinkers. This second book in the Sparrowhawk series of historical novels follows the life of this young British man as he finds his own moral path through England's hypocritical and feckless upper class. Hugh, scion of the British aristocracy in the 1750s, exhibits the same independence of spirit and mind as Jack Frake (Book One). Because his actions and adventures in London have earned him the enmity of his uncle, the Earl of Danvers, Hugh is sent to the colonies by his parents for his own safety.