King Edward requests that an alliance be forged between the Grey and Mullens families by the marriage of Eleanor to Mullens' village-plundering son Henry, and Eleanor seemingly has no choice but to run away from home to avoid going though with the arrangement. Meanwhile, the visiting trade representative from France turns out to be a woman.

Sir Thomas' son, Armus, returns from 8 years at the Crusades and the Greys journey to the Duke of Arondale's castle to pay their taxes, but there they are attacked by a group of bandits and held hostage along with Mullens and his daughter.

Eleanor is smitten with a handsome thief after she encounters him seemingly robbing from the rich to give to the poor. Meanwhile, Richard and Armus offer to train Cedric for an upcoming tournament in order to make sure that he will lose and thus become discouraged about becoming a knight and resume his path to a monastic life.

Cedric is waylaid while on an errand for Sir Thomas, negotiations founder with the Duke of Worringer, and Sir Thomas and Elizabeth encounter problems in their relationship.

Armus helps his old friend Humphrey, now a petty thief, stop an assassination attempt. Meanwhile Cedric runs into problems at a convent while recuperating from a snakebite, and Sir Thomas must entertain Elizabeth's boring son and daughter at the castle.

A bumbling student knight decides to become Eleanor's protector, and Mullens hatches another plot against the Greys. Meanwhile, the sister of Sir Thomas's late wife Anne comes to visit and looks enough like her to sweep Sir Thomas off his feet and endanger his relationship with Elizabeth.

Richard is enchanted by a lovely young woman who is being accused of witchcraft and hunted down by an evil Abbott. Meanwhile, the Friar announces that he wishes to leave Sir Thomas's service.

One of Britain's great war heroes, Lord Trenton, mentor to Sir Thomas and Mullens, returns to recruit young warriors. A peasant in Thomas's service lies in the wake of Lord Trenton's sinister doings and stands accused of murder.

Cedric is enchanted by a peasant woman and three orphans, all stricken with the plague. Against his family's wishes, Cedric risks his life to help them, brining up painful memotries of his mother's death at the hands of the illness.

Armus has been haunted by nightmares since his return from the Crusades. The brother of the Saracen he killed in battle comes to haunt him. Meanwhile, colorful love letters fly about the castle, involving Richard, Cedric and a beautiful serving girl.

A rich young ward, Hope, finds her way into the favor of Armus and the rest of the Grey siblings. Hope has run away from her cruel guardians and finds solace in a lowly woodcutter. Meanwhile, Thomas is to be knighted into the Order of the Garter and must reconcile his duty to the ""needy and oppressed, be they low-born or high.""

A peace negotiation between Lord Wyatt and Thomas Grey ends up in a swordfight and Richard on the table, bargaining business with Lord Wyatt. Charlotte, Wyatt's daughter, who has caught Armus's eye, falls in love with Richard instead.