After the death of his mother, young Alwin of Whittaker leaves the only home he has ever known to seek answers about his unknown father through a pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham.

On the journey, Alwin falls in with a band of violent and marauding soldiers and is witness to their terrible crimes. When Alwin later joins up with a group of pilgrims, he must hide his identity . . . but he is not the only one with secrets to keep. Rosamund, a young woman travelling the same path, has much to conceal too.

The journey to discovering who he really is will lead Alwin into great danger and great passion. These are dark times, and through them, Alwin must shine a light.

Will the revelations to come destroy everything that came before?

'Effortlessly transports the reader to fourteenth-century rural Derbyshire and the plight of young Alwin. With the deft touch of a master storyteller, Laura Carlin recreates the dangerous world Alwin must navigate as they flee the comforts of home for an entirely new life' Sophie Ward, author of Love and other Thought Experiments