Autumn 1386. Hildegard of Meaux - a Cistercian Abbess with a keen instinct for crime solving - is accompanying the Archbishop of York, to London for the opening of Parliament. While packing to leave, the Archbishop's saucier is found brutally murdered in an ale vat and the culprit must be one of the Archbishop's party. The journey from York to London is fraught with more deadly surprises, and it becomes clear to Hildegard that this sinister plot may also involve King Richard. Traitors, murderers, noblemen and madmen come together to create a puzzling scheme that only Hildegard can solve.