Mary Miller

At the start of World War I, Paul Baumer is a young German patriot, eager to fight. Indoctrinated with propaganda at school, he and his friends eagerly sign up for the army soon after graduation. But when the horrors of war soon become too much to bear, and as his friends die or become gravely wounded, Paul questions the sanity of fighting over a few hundreds yards of war-torn countryside.

When an unpleasant and cruel nobleman spites his stepson by ceding his estate to the abbey, he ends up being poisoned by one of Brother Cadfael's medications.

When an elderly woman is hospitalised, the truth behind her illegal adoption of 14 children is revealed.

Kate and Deeley are married and live in the country. They are joined by Kate's friend, Anna, and talk of the past. Although it is a past they have shared, their memories of it are not always the same.