One summer night in the Wealden Forest, an expertly thrown spear with a well-chiseled flint point pierces the heart of a poacher. Abbess Helewise of neighboring Hawkenlye Abbey sends for the sheriff, who dismisses the murder as the work of the "Wild People," a strange band of wanderers who come to the forest every June, according to local lore. The abbess thinks the sheriff a fool, but until the arrival of her friend, enlightened knight Sir Josse...

A Hawkenlye medieval mystery - May 1199. Abbess Helewise has been summoned by Queen Eleanor to discuss the building of a chapel at Hawkenlye Abbey. Meanwhile, Sir Josse d'Acquin is on the trail of a group of mysterious knights rumoured to be devil worshippers. As Helewise heads for home, Josse follows his quarry to Chartres, where he meets the last person he expects: Joanna. And she has grave problems of her own . . .

February, 1212. Sir Josse d'Acquin and Helewise are summoned to Southfire Hall, where Josse's elderly uncle, Hugh, lies dying, surrounded by his family. But the pair soon discover that Hugh's ill health is not the only cause of distress in the house; Hugh's son and heir, Herbert, has taken an unpleasant new wife, the widowed Lady Cyrille. Josse and Helewise are distracted by the discovery of an injured young man on the road outside on the evening...