Matthew Bartholomew doesn't want to travel to Peterborough in the summer of 1358 but his friendship with the lovely Julitta Holm has caused a scandal in Cambridge so he has no choice. He is one of a party of Bishop's Commissioners charged to discover what happened to Peterborough's abbot who went for a ride one day & has not been seen since. When the Commissioners arrive they find the town in turmoil. A feisty rabble-rouser is encouraging the poor to rise up against their overlords the abbey is at war with a powerful goldsmith & his army of mercenaries & there are bitter rivalries between competing shrines. One shrine is dedicated to Lawrence de Oxforde a vicious felon who was executed for his crimes but who has been venerated after miracles started occurring at his grave. However it is not long before murder rears its head & its first victim is Joan the woman in charge of Oxforde's tomb...