During the plowing of the Potter's Field in October 1143, the grisly remains of a woman's body are unearthed. The tenant potter had only recently left there to become a monk at the Benedictine Abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul and had abandoned his wife after fifteen years of marriage. Rumor had it that the wild, beautiful Welsh woman had returned to her homeland, perhaps with a lover. Who could tell? But the discovery of the corpse on Abbey land raises all sorts of questions, and one that impels Brother Cadfael to leave the tranquility of the herbiary in order to piece together some cryptic clues and solve a baffling crime.