A savage killing occurs before the wedding between an aging nobleman and a very young woman, and Brother Cadfael is called to investigate the leper house of Saint Giles where the killer may be hiding.

Charges of heresy and murder are complicated by the contents of a mysterious treasure chest In the summer of 1143, William of Lythwood arrives at the Benedictine Abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul, but it is not a joyous occasion-he's come back from his pilgrimage in a coffin. William's body is accompanied by his young attendant Elave, whose mission is to secure a burial place for his master on the abbey grounds, despite William's having once been reprimanded...

In the fall of 1144, two groups of visitors come to Brother Cadfael's Abbey. One group is lead by a ribald French troubadour, and the other by a mischievous young Benedictine monk. As rising flood waters threaten the abbey, a dead body is discovered, and Cadfael is set on the prowl.

When a troubled novice is blamed for the disappearance of a priest, Brother Cadfael seeks to save his soul-and his life Outside the pale of the Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, in September of 1140, a priestly emissary for King Stephen has been reported missing. But inside the pale, what troubles Brother Cadfael is a proud, secretive nineteen-year-old novice.   Brother Cadfael has never seen two men more estranged than the Lord of Aspley and...

Brother Cadfael becomes involved in a mystery when the corpse of a young woman is plowed up in a potter's field in 1143.

Brother Cadfael in captured by Danish mercenaries when his caught up in a disagreement between two Welsh princes in the summer of 1144.