In the town of Kingsbridge during the middle of the twelfth century, the lives of those who are working to build the most amazing Gothic cathedral in the world become entwined through their ambitions, loves, and tribulations. At once, this is a sensuous and enduring love story and an epic that shines with the fierce spirit of a passionate age.

Set in twelfth-century England, when Empress Maud and King Stephen are fighting for the crown of England after the death of Henry, this work of historical fiction chronicles the struggle to build the greatest gothic cathedral the world has ever known.

A prior, a master builder, and their community try to build a mighty cathedral to protect themselves while Stephen and the Empress Maud fight for the crown of England.