In the autum of 1615 the Earl and Countess of Somerset were detained on suspicion of having murdered Sir Thomas Overbury with poisoned tarts and an enema of mercury sublimate. The arrest of the countess - one of the most beautiful women in England - and the earl - a well-known "favourite" of the homosexual monarch, James I - caused a sensation. Somerset brilliantly unravels these extraordinary events, which constituted the greatest scandel in court history.