In the hot summer of 1597, the London playhouses are nailed shut after a seditious play penned by Ben Jonson and Thomas Nash lampoons the Queen and her Privy Council. Barred from performing in their own theatre, William Shakespeare and the Lord Chamberlain's Men are forced to quit London for a tour of the provinces. But as they trudge the Great West Road toward Marlborough, the troupe stumbles upon the body of a murdered nobleman. The terrified...