Brother Cadfael, a crime-solving monk in medieval Shrewsbury, has a disturbing encounter with his past when his investigation of wealthy Gervase Bonel's death by poisoning puts him in touch with Bonel's widow--the childhood sweetheart Cadfael left behind when he went to fight the Crusades forty years earlier.

Brother Cadfael, a crime-solving monk in medieval Shrewsbury, investigates the murder of a prospective bridegroom in which another contender for the hand of the same lady is a suspect.

Brother Cadfael, a crime-solving monk in medieval Shrewsbury, goes searching for answers when he is called upon to bury ninety-four rebel soldiers executed on King Stephen's orders, and finds himself with one corpse too many.