From the publisher:
It is Spring 1353, and Matthew Bartholomew is a reluctant member of the deputation of scholars, priests and students making its way to the village of Grundisburgh. As fine weather lures hordes of outlaws on to the hazardous roads, riding the short distance into Suffolk remains a treacherous exercise. But the lord's gift of the parish church to their Cambridge college is an event to justify such dangers.
However, when the benefactor begins to unduly rush the deed to legalise the transfer, Bartholomew senses that rual Suffolk is not the tranquil retreat he has been led to belive. And when Michealhouse's student-priest is found murdered in the chruch which was to become his living, Bartholomew realises he and his party are threatened by dark forces abroad in the village. Compelled top investigate, he descends into a nightmarish world of superstition, conflict and heresy from which the tainted find no return...