Verona North had seemed the perfect daughter. She'd surprised her friends by leaving her home in Devon to attend art school in London, but they'd thought it was a normal youthful rebellion which wouldn't last very long. However when she did return home it was to die - pregnant and with her body full of morphine. Her cousin, Nell Bray, isn't wholly convinced she committed suicide and is positive she was not a drug addict. Unable to suppress her curiosity, Nell discovers that she was leading a double-life: on the one hand consorting with a group of bohemian artists and anarchists, and on the other collecting information on suspected 'enemies of the state' for the secret service. Where did her real loyalties lies - with her family, her friends or her paymasters? What did she know which caused one of them to kill her, and who was the father of her child?