The rock carving in Westford, Massachusetts, had been the subject of debate for a good many years. Romantics claimed it to be the effigy of a medieval knight killed during some pre-Columbian exploration. Detractors claimed it to be partially Native American with whimsical enhancements made by nineteenth-century schoolboys.

After visiting Westford as a favor to a military miniaturist who is researching the carving, Jeffrey Devereaux and Kirsten Eriksson begin experiencing turmoil in their own daily lives.

Things only worsen when the curator of Hammond Castle Museum allows his usual indecisiveness to jeopardize not only their long-standing personal friendship but their future working relationship as well. When a member of the museum's Board of Directors turns up dead after a Renaissance Faire on the castle grounds and another death occurs during a toy show in the castle's Great Hall, Kirsten can't help but wonder about the origin of the Westford effigy and the possibility that all of these misfortunes are somehow connected with it.