It is Spring 1353, and Matthew Bartholomew is a reluctant member of the deputation of scholars, priests and students making its way to the village of Grundisburgh. As fine weather lures hordes of outlaws onto the hazardous roads, riding the short distance into Suffolk remains a treacherous exercise. But the lord's gift of the parish church to their Cambridge college is an event to justify such dangers.But when the benefactor begins to unduly rush the deed to legalise the transfer, Bartholomew senses that rural Suffolk is not the tranquil retreat he had been led to believe. And when Michaelhouse's student-priest is found murdered in the church which was to become his living, Bartholomew realises he and his party are threatened by dark forces abroad in the village.
Compelled to investigate, he descends into a nightmarish world of superstition, conflict and heresy from which the tainted find no return...
