A great wedding is to take place at the Abbey, between a beautiful young girl and a powerful baron. But this is no love match, and when the baron disappears before the wedding, Cadfael is on the case.

A rich landowner cuts his stepson out of his will to leave his fortune to Shrewsbury Abbey, and is found poisoned. When Cadfael is called in to investigate, he is shocked to find that the dead man's wife is his own childhood sweetheart, whom he has not seen for forty years.

A rich priest is found killed, and the finger of suspicion points to a new monk at Shrewsbury Abbey. Meanwhile, a civil war raging around England is piling political pressures on the Abbot. Cadfael investigates the murder and uncovers a tangled web of dishonesty and nepotism.