Benton Fraser comes to Chicago in an attempt to find out who killed his father. After solving the murder, he decides to stick around and work for the local Canadian consulate. He has made friends with a local detective, Ray Vecchio, whose sister, Francesca, has a major crush on him. Although Vecchio is often confused by Benton's strange way of doing things and Benton is often confused by how things are done south of the border, the two get along famously.

Set against a backdrop of war, religious strife and power struggles which tears lives and families apart. In that time, there rises a magnificent Cathedral in Kingsbridge. Against the backdrop, love-stories entwine: Tom, the master builder, Aliena, the noblewoman, the sadistic Lord William, Philip, the prior of Kingsbridge, Jack, the artist in stone work and Ellen, the woman from the forest who casts a curse. At once, this is a sensuous and enduring love story and an epic that shines with the fierce spirit of a passionate age.