A fierce theological dispute between Cambridge's Carmelites and Dominicans has moved beyond academic argument. A Carmelite friar is stabbed, a Junior Proctor is found hanging from the Dominican friary, and each side is ready to blame the other.
Matthew Bartholomew and Brother Michael follow connections involving a nearby convent, unauthorised meetings and rivalry with Oxford. The language of doctrine disguises more ordinary motives—fear, profit, jealousy and revenge—and the investigators must expose them before religious faction turns the university into a battleground.