Historical novel set in Wiltshire in 1076, ten years after the Norman Conquest. Two brothers, thegns from the Saxon aristocracy struggle to come to terms with the upheaval of their world and maintain their status as freemen on their ancestral land. Edmund, hot-tempered and courageous, who fought at Stamford Bridge and Hastings, where his father died, is proud of his military traditions and is haunted by the humiliation of defeat and full of hatred for the Normans. Dunstan his younger brother is gentle and pious, willing to forgive and accept the situation. He is eager only to live a useful, humble Christian life and fears the effect of bitterness and hatred on Edmund’s soul. These brothers so different in temperament are bound together in a bond of indissoluble love.
Roger De Tosny, the Norman lord of the manor considers such freemen an anomaly, wishing to buy their land and reduce them to the status of tenants. The thegns’ Uncle Cenred who owns part of the land bows to economic necessity and sells, but Edmund refuses. When an attempt by De Tosny to put pressure on him goes wrong, resulting in tragedy, Edmund swears an oath to avenge his kin by killing the Norman. He sees an opportunity to formulate a plan when De Tosny decides to build a castle on the manor land, a plan which he conceals from Dunstan because he knows his brother would oppose it.
The fulfilment of his vow will have a profound effect not only on his own life and Dunstan’s but also on the lives of the two women who love Edmund; Ilsa the miller’s daughter who hopes to become his wife and fully understands his desire to be true to the thegn’s creed and Blanche, De Tosny’s sophisticated, seductive sister. She intends her relationship with Edmund to be a casual diversion to alleviate her boredom, but discovers he means much more to her when she has the chance to save his life.
The story is played out against a backdrop of 11th Century Wiltshire village life and the seasonal round of agricultural toil in an England still full of tension between Saxon and Norman.