The year is 1373. Geoffrey Chaucer - poet, diplomat and sometime spy - is newly returned to England from a successful mission to Florence, but scarcely has he set foot on the London wharves than he is dispatched to the Devon town of Dartmouth. The San Giovanni, a ship from Genoa, has been wrecked and its cargo stolen, and a recent treaty with the powerful Italian city is at risk. There is tension between the mayor of Dartmouth and the Genoese shipmaster, each of whom is accusing the other of theft.Geoffrey and his assistants are lodged with Richard Storey, a wealthy doctor of physic with a fine house overlooking the estuary of the Dart. But they find discontent among the family, which consists of Story's new young wife, his moody son and high-spirited daughter. Then a dog is killed, seemingly unimportant but the precursor to real murder.Chaucer finds himself drawn into an investigation. The household has some intriguing visitors, among them a thrice-widowed older woman, a softly spoken herbalist and the madam of a local brothel. Is the murderer one of them or perhaps a member of the band of smugglers who live in the wild woods? And there are rumours that the San Giovanni was carrying a secret cargo, an object that is literally priceless. Read Less