"hed here no tears. No Saint could die More Blessed and Comforted than I."

So read the epitaph composed by Morwenna Treverra centuries ago as she followed her beloved husband, Jan, into death. The couple have been together ever since, models of pious content, in the little seaside Saxon church near the village of Maymouth. But when curious scholars arrange to open Jan Treverra's tomb, it yields not one boy but two...and neither of them is Jan Treverra.

Detective Inspector George Felse happens to be on holiday nearby; indeed, he helped to open the crypt and reveal its all too modern contents. Now from an ancient gave, a mystery unfolds; a trail of violence in Maymouth's history that casts shadows centuries long...