In which the wounded traveller, Edward Redclyffe, awakens in a mysterious, antiquated chamber tended to by a kindly old palmer and a practiced surgeon, his fevered mind wavering between the present and a dreamlike past. Amidst gentle care and reflective conversation, he begins to find a fragile peace and respite from his life's long-trodden path of struggle, sheltered within the historic walls of a somber charitable establishment.