"Restoring his recently inherited family home is a daunting enough task for young lawyer Nigellus Cobmartin without the addition of any unwelcome discoveries. But when workmen turning the crumbling manor house into a grand home for Nigellus and his companion, John Rykener, uncover a skeleton bound, tied and hidden in the wall - and holding the precious relic that went missing from his father's estate nearly twenty years ago - Nigellus immediately...

1390. Hailes Abbey, Gloucestershire, England. Two monks lie murdered, their Holy Blood relic stolen: a relic that is said to run liquid for the sinless and remain stubbornly dry for the sinner. Unwilling to become involved in a bitter dispute between a country monastery and Westminster Abbey, the disgraced former knight Crispin Guest attempts to return the relic to Hailes where it belongs, but somehow it keeps returning to his hands no matter what....