In the remote village of Mandragora the God-fearing inhabitants scratch a meagre living from the land. Farmers, like Yves Gundron, take their puny loads to market on a one-wheeled cart, bound directly round the throat of a straining horse. It's medieval existence where life expectancy is short. Very short for horses.
Then Gundron, a part-time inventor, conceives the harness. Horses live longer, productivity increases, quality of life improves and public holiday is called. Buoyed by his success, Gundron continues thinking and tinkering, producing new equipment that changes the lives of the community. But when anthropologist Ruth Blum appears in the village - native of Boston and the late twentieth century - what had seemed to be a simple historical document about a changing medieval farming community proves to be something else entirely . . .
