In the 12th century, in an unnamed town near the English county of Wiltshire, townspeople gather for a public hanging. The condemned man is said to have stolen a silver chalice from a nearby monastery; the theft is notable as such a rich object could not easily be sold, rendering its value purely aesthetic. The thief is Jack Cherbourg, a strange looking Frenchman, and in his dying moment he sings a tuneful song to a woman with beautiful golden eyes in the audience. Once the Frenchman is executed, the golden-eyed woman, Ellen, curses the authorities who hanged him “with sickness and sorrow, with hunger and pain […]” (15). She sacrifices a chicken for effect and then escapes from sight before she can be seized.

A decade later, in spring of 1135, Tom Builder and his son Alfred work on an estate for Lord Percy Hamleigh, who intends to give the estate to his son William as a wedding present for his betrothal to Lady Aliena of Shiring. Tom is a thoughtful craftsman who is inspired by having once worked on a great cathedral in Exeter. He dreams of working on a cathedral again.