In the Wealden Forest near Hawkenlye, a man is found killed with a spear, and the death intensifies old fears about the mysterious people said to live beyond the settled clearings. Abbess Helewise and Sir Josse d’Acquin are drawn into the case as suspicion falls uneasily between villagers, forest dwellers and those who exploit the woodland for profit.
When a novice disappears and another death follows, the investigation forces Helewise and Josse to look beyond rumours of the supernatural and into the rival claims people make upon the forest. The mystery uses the landscape of late twelfth-century Kent and Sussex to explore custom, isolation and the fragile boundary between religious communities and older local traditions.
