After surviving the horrors of the Black Death, a lapsed nun takes to the road alone, protected from rain and robbers by the skin of a bear.

In 1351, many in England begin thinking that their mighty overlords — Church and Crown - have no control over their fates and a new horizon beckons. It's a time when labor is in high demand, and nature offers immense bounty to those who have survived death and disease.

Sister Mary Thomas stumbles into a manor house and when she is mistaken for its Baroness she discovers she now has the power to liberate peasants threatened in new ways and perhaps even build a community where all can ask, "what happens if I get what I have always wanted?"

That's where the danger lies: their freedom is a threat to powerful people determined to keep what is theirs.