A tale of witchcraft and retribution in 14th-century Yorkshire is told through the eyes of a penitent monk.

In the credulous squalor of medieval Yorkshire, a peasant girl is accused of being a sorceress. The suffering inflicted upon her by male superstition sparks a spectacular and terrifying retort which initiates the legend of Sycorax. Many years later, the story is recounted by Edmund, a flawed monk at Byland Abbey, who sets out to write a history of the witch as a penance for lascivious fantasies. In the process, he uncovers a brutal and eerie tale in which he becomes fatally involved. Not just a trip into another epoch, and more than just another supernatural thriller, this cunning mock-translation of the medieval tale of Sycorax reveals that the compulsions and delusions examined are endemic in us all today.