A vacation trip to Italy will be the trigger that uncovers one of the strangest and most unknown mysteries. Leslie Hotson, a researcher specializing in the theater of the Elizabethan era, acquires in an antique dealer in Padua some handwritten letters of an unknown author. In them, he discovers quotes about the murder of an English writer that implicate Her Majesty's secret service. In London, with the help of investigator Calvin Hoffman and documentary filmmaker Sophie Anniston, she begins to investigate the contents of the letters. There are no names. There are no signatures. However, some strange marks will reveal who the author is of the writings. But not everything will be so easy, because the false death of a spy in the service of the crown will trigger a series of events that Hotson and his colleagues will have to discover. The help of graphologist Peter Jacoby will be decisive to verify the authenticity of the letters, which also narrate the adventures and love affairs of the most prestigious authors of the golden age: Christopher Marlowe, Philip Sidney, William Shakespeare, Ben Johnson, Thomas Kyd and Edmund Spencer. The inquiries made by the three colleagues will cast doubt on the authorship of some of Shakespeare's plays. However, no expert will accept the result of their inquiries and the defenders of the English tradition will present Hotson as a foreigner interested in undermining the patriotic values, reason for which he will be viciously attacked.