Richard the Lionheart is still being held hostage after his crusade; in paying his ransom, his people have been made paupers. Abbess Helewise is struggling to keep the Abbey going through a brutal winter, fending off the starvation of her nuns and the townspeople. In the midst of this hardship, a loved one returns to Helewise after twenty years, in desperate need of help. Her son. Then a man is found strangled, dangling from a tree near the Abbey. The next day, her son flees. Helewise and Knight Josse d"Acquin must now investigate the past?to a time before Helewise took the veil. Was her handsome husband and her enigmatic father-in-law all that they seemed? And can she prevent another terrible murder?or will the sins of the fathers be laid upon her innocent son?