The sleuthing medieval monk's quiet, monastic life is shattered when the Abbey of Shrewsbury becomes embroiled in a war raging between King Stephen and Empress Maud.

The sleuthing medieval monk investigates when the town's goldsmith is robbed and left for dead.

A great wedding is due to take place at the Abbey of Shrewsbury, for a beautiful young girl and a powerful Baron - but he's only interested in the contents of her dowry, not her heart. On the eve of the wedding he rides off into the night - and is never seen alive again.

Habit-wearing sleuth Cadfael is called in to investigate when a wealthy landowner, who cut his son out of his will to leave his inheritance to Shrewsbury Abbey, is found poisoned. The dashing monk discovers that the man's wife is the childhood sweetheart he has not seen for 40 years. Cadfael had promised he would be back to marry her after leaving for the crusades, but never returned to honour his pledge.

Brother Cadfael investigates the rape, murder and encasement in ice of a nun. The man of the cloth's probing reveals not only a murderer but the fact that he himself has fathered a son, despite now being a celibate vessel of God.

Brother Cadfael and his colleagues welcome into the abbey a young man who expresses an urgent wish to join the order, but Cadfael looks into the real reasons behind the young man's unexpected arrival.