As Edward I wages a bloody conflict with Wales, Prioress Eleanor escorts her younger brother, Robert, and his wife, who is in labor, from their Marcher lands to greater safety at a Wynethorpe manor in a village just inside the English border. They are joined by Brother Thomas, the Prioress's trusted friend, and Sister Anne, who helps navigate the difficult birth and delivers a baby girl. The local abbot begs the Prioress’s help. The village priest has been found dead, and standing over him is the ghost of Hywel, the village stonemason who was recently hanged for slaying some sleeping English soldiers. What secrets are the mysterious locals keeping from the outsiders visiting their troubled home?

Seven abbots are riding to meet a papal legate in Norfolk. This is not a pilgrimage --- each abbot hopes to make a case for being raised to a bishopric at the next vacancy. One abbot grows so ill the party has detoured to Tyndal. And despite the limited care Sister Anne can offer, Abbot Ilbert dies a horrible death, cause unknown. As his fellows prepare to resume their journey the next day, Abbot Tristram doubles over in great distress. By now the heavy snows have choked all the roads and the priory and village are marooned. Tristram dies. And then another abbot sickens while Sister Anne struggles to determine what --- and who --- killed these men.