The Napoleonic Wars are over but Great Britain faces plenty of new perils. The treaty ending the War of 1812 has yet to be fully executed, a volcanic eruption in the East Indies has turned the weather dangerously peculiar, the economy is a wreck, and a near insurrection has broken out on the Scottish Border led by ghosts from three hundred years past. These ghosts are anything but supernatural and are led by a shadowy figure who fancies himself a second Bonaparte. The problems are all connected, and Thomas Pennywhistle's complicated new appointment requires him to be a diplomat, a policeman, an economist, a sleuth, and soldier. As Warden of the East English March, Pennywhistle is granted emergency powers not used since the 17th century and realizes that if he fails, Great Britain might be looking at a revolution that could accomplish what Napoleon was unable to do. The stakes have never been higher because Pennywhistle knows that anything less than complete success could erase all that he has worked for and make him a scapegoat whose name would live in infamy.