Archbishop Engelbert, usurper, imperial regent, and the most hated man of his time, is murdered on November 7, 1225. His corpse bears fifty cuts and stab wounds. Thomas, not exactly a declared friend of the archbishop, finds himself among the suspects; his court is burned down, and his children are abducted. To prove his innocence and clarify the case, he pursues the true murderer, Friedrich von Isenberg, all the way to Rome and back to Cologne, where he is executed on the wheel in front of the Severin Gate a year later. However, the true masterminds threaten to escape unscathed.