...So you see, there's no need to plan revenge... because the angels will do it for you. That is their law. And none can escape their terrible punishment....Summer, 1384. The sun is hot and high, promising a fine harvest - but storm-clouds of insurrection gather over England. John of Gaunt still refuses to step aside for his ward, the boy king Richard II. Heretics roam the land sowing sedition. A return to the bloodshed of the Great Rebellion seems certain. Hildegard of Meaux - sleuth, spy and now abbess of the Cistercian order - has founded a religious refuge from a world of violence, schism and blood-feud. But by taking a bonded maid into the fold Hildegard has made a dangerous enemy, willing to destroying her sanctuary to further his own ends. Meanwhile her own history threatens to drag her into the schemes of traitors - including the ruthless Henry Bolingbroke. And as if this wasn't enough, portents show that the End of Days is imminent; signs expressed by death in fire. Under the shadow of the apocalypse, can even the resourceful Hildegard unweave the tangled skein of conspiracy?