The barrel should have contained books
- instead it held treasure & a severed head... Gil Cunningham & his old acquaintance Glasgow merchant Augie Morison expecting a delivery of books from the Low Countries report the gruesome substitute to the Provost & at the inquest the next morning Morison is accused of the murder & imprisoned. He appeals to Gil who sets out with his friend & future father in law Maistre Pierre the French master-mason to find the treasures owner trace the barrel & identify the dead man. The trail they follow leads them from the court of James IV at Stirling via a coopers yard in Linlithgow to another death on the bare slopes of the Pentland Hills.