When an old baron and an orphan are to be wed at the abbey, all of Shrewsbury turns out to see the unlikely pair ride into town. Cadfael investigates when the baron ominously rides off on the eve of the wedding.

The murder of a wealthy cleric leads the finger of suspicion to point to a new monk at the Abbey. Cadfael investigates at the behest of the abbot, on whom political pressures are being piled from the civil war raging round England. Cadfael uncovers a tangled web of family loyalty and dishonesty.

Cadfael's novice, Brother Oswin, is found close to death, babbling about a woman. When a nun is found raped, murdered and encased in the ice of a frozen stream, Oswin is accused of murder. Cadfael tracks the nun's companion, Ermina Hugonin, and sets out to prove Oswin's innocence.