Paris, 1585. Giordano Bruno, heretic, philosopher and spy for Elizabeth's minister Sir Francis Walsingham, has come to Paris, a city on the edge of catastrophe. King Henri III is surrounded by enemies: the Duke of Guise's Catholic League; Henri of Navarre's Protestant army; and from within his own court, where his mother Catherine of Medici wields immense influence. Bruno, alone and near destitute, turns to old friend and zealous preacher, Paul Lefevre. But when the priest is murdered, uttering the single word "Circe" with his dying breath, Bruno is pulled into a dangerous world