After a wealthy landowner, Gervase, cuts his stepson, Edwin Gurney, out of his will, in order to leave his inheritance to the Abbey, he is poisoned at his dinner table. When Cadfael is called in to investigate, he is shocked to discover that the man's wife, Richildis, is his childhood sweetheart, whom he has not seen for forty years. Meanwhile Abbot Heribert is summoned away by the church authorities, and returns accompanied by the new abbot, Radulfus.