I should first relate that the year 1624 saw my birth, on the 23rd of a cold February day. My mother told me that I arrived much before my time, to a landscape covered with deep snow, and more falling from the sky.

Thomas Chayne has always struggled against the weight of expectation as heir to his family estate, never managing to impress his overbearing but emotionally distant father, who expects nothing less than perfection.

When a small act of rebellion has lasting consequences, Thomas finds himself exiled to Oxford in disgrace. But with England on the brink of civil war, a larger revolution is in the air and Thomas has an opportunity to prove his worth by rallying a troop of royalists to defend the city from the escalating violence.

Yet he soon faces an impossible choice between honouring his family and his loyalty to the Crown …