Black February in the year 1383: rain started to fall before Martinmas, sweeping through France, Flanders and Tuscany, and barely ceased all year. Floods brought famine. Famine brought disease. The Black Death bestowed its grace on town after town. Bodies were piled in open pits.The lime was spread. Paris shut its gates; Cologne and Florence followed suit. Into this watery world, against a background of plague and the political turmoil of the Hundred Years War, the nun Hildegard is sent across Europe in search of a precious relic, the Cross of Constantine.Strong-willed and independent, she will need remarkable skills to survive such a dangerous quest. For with the English Crown at stake there are many who want her mission to fail - and one, above all, who plans a deadly revenge . . .