Paris, 1307. A Knight Templar weeps as he watches his friends, broken by torture, go to their deaths at the stake. Pope Clement has destroyed the Order, persuaded of corruption within it. All that remains is the desire for vengeance against those who defiled the Order's name.
Devon 1316. Simon Puttock is the newly appointed bailiff of Lydford Castle, but has little experience of violence. A charred body is found in a burned-out cottage, and only the new lord, Sir Baldwin de Furnshill, deduces that the victim was dead before the fire began.
Together, Simon and Baldwin begin to piece together the events of the man's last days. Then word comes of another murder, and this time the victim was burned alive...