Autumn of 1327. Four children slip away from the town of Kingsbridge. A boy born to be an architect, a boy thirsty for power, a girl who dreams of becoming a doctor, a girl outcast. They go to play in the forest. But there they unwittingly witness a murder and become accomplices to a secret they must keep at all costs...

In the years to come, all four will experience prosperity, hunger, the horror of the plague, and war. One boy will travel the world but will return to Kingsbridge. The other will become a powerful and corrupt nobleman. Of the girls, one will challenge the terrible omnipotence of the Church, the other will be consumed by love. Their lives, driven by ambition, love, greed, and revenge, will take very different paths, but will remain inextricably linked under the heavy shadow of the oath they took on that fateful day in 1327...

Ken Follett, who enchanted readers around the world with "The Pillars of the Earth," a thrilling epic set in 12th century England, takes us back to Kingsbridge, two centuries later. The imposing cathedral still dominates the town. And the descendants of those who built it are preparing to live out their own destiny...