It is May 1137, and the Abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul in Shewsbury seems to be in spiritual (and financial) straights because they have no sacred relics to attract pilgrims. However, a rather too-convenient vision of an obscure Welsh female saint, St. Winnifred, sends a group of the Brothers, headed by the ambitious Prior Robert and including the Welsh-born Brother Cadfael, to the village of Gwytherin, where the saint is supposed to be buried.