The year is 1816, in Northamptonshire.
On the way back from the Napoleonic Wars in France, Marcus, the younger son of the Earl of Penderbrook, returns to find his brother dead, the e.
Sickness spreads as a red fungus overtakes fields, seals over windows, and infiltrates cellars.
The people are starving, and even the wealthy and titled are affected by shortages.
Temperatures drop, fields flood and freeze, grain rots on the stem.
A red, spiderwebbed haze covers the sun.
The year is 1816, in Northamptonshire