1798, France. Nuns move along the dark corridors of a Versailles hospital where the young Sister Perpetué has been tasked with sitting with the patient who must always be watched. The man, gaunt, with his sallow skin and distended belly, is dying: they say he ate a golden fork, and that it's killing him from the inside. But that's not all--he is rumored to have done monstrous things in his attempts to sate an insatiable appetite... an appetite they...

Pax is the motto of Brede Abbey. Yet its peace is the peace of God--"not," as Godden brings to her readers' notice, "the world's peace." The walls of Brede witness life of unceasing work and prayer, little creature comfort, persistent disappointment and misunderstanding--yet a life of peace all the same, unswervingly joyful and loving. Into this life enters Philippa Talbot, ambitious, independent, successful, forsaking her beautifully arranged career...