The monks of Shrewsbury go to Wales to recover the bones of St. Winifred. But their attempted bribery of the Welsh puts them at odds with the local residents—and when the local landowner is found murdered, the monks are regarded as prime suspects.

Cadfael puts Hugh Beringar to the test, and Hugh has to choose between loyalty to the king and friendship with Cadfael. Meanwhile, at the annual St. Peter's Fair in Shrewsbury, townspeople come into conflict with the Abbey's officers and with visiting merchants. A curfew is ordered, but not fully observed—then Cadfael finds he has a murder to solve.

The dead body of an elderly man is found hidden in a sack at the Abbey, and Cadfael believes he was murdered. The principal suspects are a group of pilgrims, who include two known thieves. Cadfael locks them up, in a bid to draw out the killer.

A potter's wife dies suddenly, and he gives up his old life to enter the Abbey, but the other monks suspect him of having killed his wife. As Cadfael investigates the death he finds a curious web of jealousy, infidelity and suicide.

Brother Cadfael has settled down to a quiet religious life at Shrewsbury Abbey after an adventurous, and far from monastic, youth. But when he uncovers a murder, he turns detective to solve the crime.

A rich priest is found killed, and the finger of suspicion points to a new monk at Shrewsbury Abbey. Meanwhile, a civil war raging around England is piling political pressures on the Abbot. Cadfael investigates the murder and uncovers a tangled web of dishonesty and nepotism.

When Shrewsbury's goldsmith is robbed and left for dead, the locals launch a witch-hunt. Pursued by the mob, the prime suspect, a young juggler who performed at the wedding of the goldsmith's son, seeks sanctuary at the Abbey. But as Cadfael investigates, a second body is found floating in the River Severn.

A rich landowner cuts his stepson out of his will to leave his fortune to Shrewsbury Abbey, and is found poisoned. When Cadfael is called in to investigate, he is shocked to find that the dead man's wife is his own childhood sweetheart, whom he has not seen for forty years.