A violent explosion, a poisoned student, and a mystery that runs so deep it touches upon the very foundations of the university make up the sixth installment in Kate Khavari’s beloved series.

After a fateful expedition to the East, Saffron Everleigh has returned to gloomy London weighed down with secrets and grief. But things are looking up. Her new husband will soon come home and the spirits at the University College London are high as the students celebrate Bonfire Night. But rather than fireworks, the campus is rocked by an explosion that destroys the Chemistry Hall.

Not only is the school in disarray in the wake of the destruction, but Saffron learns that a young man was discovered in a locked room on campus, poisoned. The victim, William Harrington, is entangled with a young woman she’s been mentoring, chemistry student Savita Datta. Harrington is also the nephew of a familiar foe, Lord Vale, who wants to hire Saffron to find those responsible for the poisoning. Despite her misgivings about Lord Vale’s intentions, Saffron accepts, only to be thrown into a mystery that threatens to destroy the futures of all it touches.

Saffron must untangle blackmail, radical politics, and academic rivalries to discover the truth, complicated by her own need to maintain a deception with her university boss and her family.