John Taylor lives in quiet solitude, designing puzzles for a living, under the nom-de-plume of 'Ludwig'. When his identical twin, James, disappears off the face of the earth, John takes over his brother's identity in a quest to discover his whereabouts.

A high-powered attorney must race through London, following the cryptic commands of a mysterious caller, as she fights against time to save her abducted son.

Against the backdrop of the coming industrial revolution in eighteenth century Yorkshire, David Hartley assembles a gang of weavers and land-workers to embark upon a revolutionary criminal enterprise that will capsize the economy and become the biggest fraud in British history.