8th CHRONICLE: 1140 AD and Brother Cadfael finds himself playing the part of "devils lawan" at a conference of his superiors. Two novices are being offered to the Order and the problem is whether to accept them. In the event Meriet Aspley, aged nineteen, is accepted but becomes a source of confusion and distress among the novices and monks, so much so that some think of him as "the Devils Novice". Hugh Beringer, deputy sheriff of Shropshire and personal friend of Cadfael, is investigating the disappearance of a superior prelate whose horse has been found near to the path he was taking, but a later and far more sinister discovery proves that great wickedness has been done. And Meriet, the Devils Novice, is somehow mixed up in it. There is to be a great wedding at the Abbey. By that time Cadfael has done his work of detection - and reached a conclusion. He contrives that the great gathering becomes a scene of drama, and from that drama there emerges the truth behind a murder, and the explanation of Meriets predicament.