The year is late fifteenth-century England, and Henry VII's uneasy reign has not extinguished the ancient struggle between faith and ambition. At the Abbey of Silver Cross, Abbot Mark has long held sway over the land of Middle Forest, his influence woven into the very structure of local power. But when the miracles of Saint Leofric begin drawing pilgrims and prestige to a rival house led by the ambitious Prior Hugh, the abbey's foundations begin to crack. Into this world of scheming monks and shifting loyalties steps Morgen Fay, a woman tethered to the local elite yet devoured by a restlessness she cannot name. As religious factions maneuver for dominance and the question of which saint will hold dominion over the region hangs in the balance, Morgen must navigate a landscape where devotion and desire are indistinguishable from political calculation. Mary Johnston renders medieval England with the tactile weight of tapestries and candlelight, yet her characters burn with a modernity that transcends their period. This is a novel about what happens when the sacred becomes a weapon and the heart wants what the soul has been taught to deny.
