Madeleine, a lecturer in Middle Ages history at the University of Caen in France, leads a quiet, measured life. She is yet to recover from her split from her loved one when her mother suddenly dies. Madeleine is saved from inescapable grief by the diary of a tapestry embroiderer who accidentally came to her, who lived in the middle of the 11th century. Madeleine takes on the translation of the diary and plunges into the events, intrigues, conspiracies reigning at the court of Edward, the last king of the Saxons, learns about the forbidden love of Queen Edith and the priest.