Cathar country, (now) southern France, year: 1200.

When the woodcutter's only daughter is murdered, the bailiff tries to arrest Bertwoin the Plowman, who flees to a master alchemist and his professional virgin, Flowia, for help.

Bertwoin must find the brutal killer while the grieving woodcutter, the relentless bailiff, and righteous monks pursue him. His search for clues takes him to the corpse room inside an abbey, to a torture pit near the Devil’s Doorstep, and to the accursed home of a heretic priest.

When monks capture him, wily Flowia rescues Bertwoin from the Bishop’s dungeon and hides with him where no one would think to look for them.

To save his own life and another life as precious as his own, Bertwoin must outwit this sadistic killer who hunts them . . . and who knows how to find them.