A Member of Parliament is found stabbed to death in a locked room near the House of Commons. Suspicion falls on the older brother of Rita Patel, and the police fear a terrorist connection. With her parents and younger brother away in India for the autumn half term of 2013, Rita, a sixth former, sets out to prove her brother's innocence. Rita, with the support of her friend, Priya Shah, travels between her home town of Leicester and London to try to help the police. Her investigations take place in a multicultural context and are set against the backdrop of life at Westminster and Rita's historical interest in Magna Carta, Simon de Montfort and the origins of the British Parliament.