"Ireland, A.D. 671. An Anglo-Saxon delegation arrives in Cashel to debate the new religious rules that have been handed down from Rome. The Abbot of Imleach leads the Irish delegation, which is hostile to the new rules from outsiders. Among the Anglo-Saxon group is Brother Eadulf's own younger brother Egric, whom Eadulf hasn't seen for many years. When the debate quickly becomes acrimonious, a local abbess has to step in as a mediator between the...

AD 664. Sister Fidelma finds herself in the seaport of Genua, en route from Rome back to her native Cashel. Her old teacher, Brother Ruadan, lies dying in the abbey of Bobium, an isolated abbey in a disturbed country where even the Christians are in bloody conflict with one another and the worship of the pagan gods often prevails. Fidelma is determined to see Brother Ruadan before he dies. But from the moment she enters the beautiful valley of Trebbia,...