England, 1106 A.D. Norman rule lies heavily on the land. When a Norman earl is killed while hunting, the dead earl's son invokes the dreaded murdrum law. This law presumes that the killer is English. It requires the judicial district in which the crime took place to produce the guilty man or be hit with a massive fine. The job of finding the killer falls upon Miles Edwulfson, an English ploughman of noble descent. Miles has two problems. First, he doesn't believe the killer was English, but a member of the earl's hunting party. Second, the arrow used in the crime belongs to Miles's son, Aelred.Facing opposition from the Norman nobility, his fellow Englishmen, and even his own family, Miles must save Aelred's life and bring the real killer to justice.