14th century Yorkshire: the time of Chaucer. Sometimes things must get worse before they get better. Lent is cold, wet and austere, and the brothers long for their new abbot, John Hazell, to take up the reins. But on the first day of John's abbacy, Prior William de Bulmer rocks up at their door, seeking refuge from his numerous enemies. His priory is a charred ruin, and he has nowhere else to go. Appalled to be taking in this...