Canterbury, 1235. At the behest of King Henry III, two monks have been charged to look into the case of Cecilia, an enigmatic visionary. Wilfridus, and the defrocked Brother Thomas, are to report on her origins, her purpose in England - and her alleged links with a heretical sect which sees only evil in the created world. The two monks are immediately beguiled by the grace and courtly bearing of Cecilia, and moved by the story she unfolds of her youth in the courts of Southern Germany - a tale of passion and loss, and the consolations of music and the contemplative life. But even as they begin to find themselves drawn to her, they uncover a web of intrigue and corruption, stretching to the highest levels of the Kingdom, which will make them the unwitting instruments of her fate.