The surviving members of the Essex Dogs are scattered.

"Loveday" FitzTalbot, grown older and tired of war, is now the portly keeper of a tavern called the Green Lion. He is living with a woman called Gilda and her son, Sammy, and most days is content. His tavern is in a good location for trade and has a regular crowd of customers. But, the tavern needs a new roof, its furnishings are worm-riddled, and expenses eat up what profits he realizes.

Still, he has survived years of the king's wars as well as the Black Death, which claimed millions of lives as it swept across Europe from East to West.

Thorp and Millstone, along with Rigby, Thorp's half-orphaned nephew, have joined Sir Stephen Cosyngton on the fleet of ships escorting Edward III's favorite daughter, Joan, to Bordeaux, where she was to marry the heir of the Kingdom of Castile. Hope of thus forging an alliance that would halt Castilian predations on English ships and shipping was dashed as the princess was added to the countless victims of the Death.

Romford has abandoned his duty as an archer and is thriving as squire to Sir Thomas Holand at Court, though the wealth he acquired in the wars is being depleted by loans to his debt-ridden master and the extravagant demands of Sir Thomas's wife, Joan, cousin of the king.

Chance will bring all the surviving Dogs together again, including the missing Scotsman, for an adventure that will tax their courage and dependence on one another to the hilt.

Be warned, reader, this is not a book for the faint-hearted. Life was short and brutal in the 14th century, and Jones, a noted historian, depicts it realistically in this fictional series. Soldiers then, as now, swear creatively. If you can accept these facts, you'll love these brave men and their adventures as I have.

Jones has said this is the finale for the Dogs. Many of their fans hope he changes his mind about that.