Shardlake plot
England, the sixteenth century. During the dissolution of the monasteries, Matthew Shardlake's sheltered life as a lawyer is turned upside down when statesman Thomas Cromwell tasks him with investigating the murder of one of his commissioners in a remote monastery. The Commissioner was gathering evidence to close the monastery and it is now necessary for Cromwell's own political survival that Shardlake both solves the murder and closes the monastery. Arriving at the destination, Shardlake is received by hostile, suspicious and paranoid monks who fear for their future and will seemingly stop at nothing to maintain their order.