It is the late 14th century, a dangerous time beset by war and plague.
Nicholas Barber, a young and wayward cleric, stumbles across a group of
travelling players and compounds his sins by joining them. Yet the town
where they perform reveals another drama: a young woman is to be hanged
for the murder of a 12-year-old boy. What better way to increase their
takings than to make a new play, to enact the murder of Thomas Wells?
But as the actors rehearse, they discover that the truth about the boy's
death has yet to be revealed.