As night sets in, Chaucer's weary pilgrims find themselves in a Kent copse, rumoured to be haunted. Huddling around the fire, trying to ignore the screeches of owls and other, more frightening sounds, they persuade the Clerk of Oxford to tell a ghostly tale of love and death that will further chill their blood...

It's 1381 and Beatrice Arrowner is on her way to Ravenscroft Castle, on the outskirts of the Essex town of Maldon. It is May Day and Beatrice is to share in the feasting with the clerk, Ralph Mortimer, on the castle green. Neither the dank stench of the moat nor the cluster of ravens brooding ominously above the crumbling turrets can darken Beatrice's mood as she sees Ralph - whom she's to marry next month - and their closest friends, already gathered around the sumptuous platters of food. But the sinister events of the last few days soon cast a cloud over the festivities. Phoebe, a castle maid, has been horribly murdered. And Fulk, the local miller's son, has disappeared. So when Goodman Winthrop, who's staying at Ravenscroft, is also found murdered, it seems that the evil spirits which haunt the Midnight Tower are doing their worst.

Certain that there's a connection betwenn these events and his own search for the legendary Brythnoth's jewelled cross, reported to be hidden very near Ravenscroft, Ralph knows that his own life is in danger and that the murderer must indeed be one of his close friends. But he can only hunt down the killer with the help of Beatrice - who learns that death is not necessarily the end of existence...