The year is 1823, and at the Old Bailey a young man, David Neander stands in the dock on trial for his life. His crime? The theft of half a sheep's carcass worth just 40 shillings. The system is stacked against him for while he is an educated man, he is a Jewish immigrant and speaks little English, is seen as just another piece of London's low life jetsam to be dispatched to the hangman with little ceremony and no one to mourn him. Yet by chance, in the gallery that day Julia Carmichael, the young talented daughter of a celebrated lawyer, witnesses his plight. She observes the injustice being inflicted on the accused by an incompetent and prejudiced judge and sees in David Neander what others have failed to see. Determined to help him she delves into his past and uncovers the remarkable journey that he has been forced to endure, the privations he has to overcome and the stinging irony of being accused of a crime that he did not commit. But can she and her father prove his innocence or must they watch him hang. A Georgian courtroom drama, an adventure story; an unlikely romance; and the story of two lives that are changed forever