New Amsterdam in 1664 - Pearl Street is paved with oyster shells, and hogs roam the Broad Way undeterred by teeming throngs of hearty Dutch settlers, soldiers, sailors, freed African laborers, half-naked Indians, Jewish traders. Into Manhattan Harbor sail British warships demanding surrender, while an army of Englishmen are poised to invade from Breukelen just across the water. Tonneman, the Dutch Schout (sheriff) has been drinking heavily to dull the pain of his wife's.

Death. Now he must pull himself together to cope with proliferating crises. He has to persuade his cantankerous Calvinist boss, the notoriously stubborn Pieter Stuyvesant, that the Dutch citizens are more interested in their beer and their businesses than in fighting the British invaders. Then there's the recent chain of strange events, starting with the apparent suicide of a popular tavern owner and good friend of the Schout, followed by a mysterious fire, a corpse that.

Disappears only to turn up again in a most unlikely place, and a violent death that points a suspicious finger in a startling direction. And - as if an impending invasion and a bizarre crime wave were not enough - Tonneman must confront the tantalizing Racqel Mendoza, an exotic Jewish beauty who is not quite officially a widow. Is she the cure for the Schout's loneliness - or part of a ruthless spy ring responsible for the rash of murders?