January, 1194. A very sick man is making his way to Hawkenlye Abbey to take the Holy Water cure. In his delirium, the Virgin Mary appears before him—a seeming recurrence of the miraculous sighting that led to the establishment of the Abbey. As he watches the beautiful woman approach, he begins to pray. But she strikes him with a club, then rolls him into a ditch. Winter becomes increasingly bitter. It is only when the thaw comes that the corpse is discovered by two travelers. It appears that he had come from France, carrying papers that Abbess Helewise asks Josse d'Acquin to decipher. As Josse sets off to find out what he can about the man, the two travelers who have brought them the body fall sick. And the sickness looks very much like plague…