It is the year 1350. Isabel Watkins, a prostitute, is walking home in Cambridge when she is attacked. On the other side of the city there is a man who waits for St Mary's Church to be locked. then he climbs to the tower where the chest where the important documents of the college are stored. He lifts the locks and opens the chest.
The next day Bartholomew is attending mass and Brother Michale is the priest at the altar. Then they are summoned by Richard de Wetherset, the chancellor, because there is an important matter he wants to consult them. De Wetherset tells hm that they found a dead man in the college chest, where the most important documents are. When Matthew examines the body, he doesn't seem to find the cause of his death. What he knows is that this man was very skilful in picking locks, and then he discovers that one of the locks has a small sharp point which is poisoned, and that is how he was poisoned. De Wetherset says that he is the only one who has the keys for the chest, and he is worried because Nicholas of York, his clerk, recently wrote a history of the university, including facts that he would hate to be known. Nicholas of York died a month ago, and now De Wetherset questions whether his death was due to natural causes. De Wetherset wants Bartholomew to investigate, and even though Matthew protests, the man won't accept his excuses. What De Wetherset will do is to ask for the licence to unbury Nicholas.
When Bartholomew and Brother Michael leave the church, the former is not happy. Then Sybilla, a prostitute, runs to them, crying, and she takes them to a churchyard. Isobel Atkins lays dead, adn they take her to the church where she is set in a coffin and covered. She is the third prostitute that has been killed, and Bartholomew sees a round mark on her feet, which was also a mark he saw in the second prostitute.
Matthew and Brother Michael need to talk to Brother Cuthbert, who is usually present when the chest is open. They are told that the brother is sick, and when they open the door, they find that the room is completely empty - no furniture at all - and the brother is nowhere to be seen.
When Bartholomew and Brother Michael return to Michaelhouse, Matthew is told that Frances de Belem is waiting for him. Frances was a woman who Matthew's brother-in-law and her father wanted Bartholomew to marry, but he fled to study medicine. Frances then married someone else and now is a widow. Frances tells Matthew that she is with child and wants to get rid of it, but Matthew tells him that he doesn't know how and it is dangerous. He tells her to talk to the midwwife, Mistress Woodman, but Frances tells him that the midwife caused a woman she knows to die. Frances insists, but Bartholomew is adamant, and he tells her that he can help her to find a place where to have the child.
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