It is the fifth year of the Lord Protector's rule and while life has always been hard for the gypsies, since Oliver Cromwell has seized control of England, life has become harder than ever.
Emilia and Luka are on a dangerous quest to find six ancient gypsy charms and with a little bit of luck - or, as Emilia believes, magic - save their family from the gallows. They have the first three, an old gold coin, a small silver horse and a sprig of rue wrought in :
silver, but now they seek the fourth, a cat's eye shell.
Emilia and Luka flee into Sussex with soldiers hot on their heels, in company with a Royalist duke, a Catholic priest, a highwayman and young Tom Whitehorse. Only the most dangerous religion in the time of Puritan rule can help them escape. And Emilia and Luka still must find the elusive gypsy tribe of the cat's eye shell, who, it seems, have turned to smuggling...