The narrative opens with an apocalyptic prologue describing the great plague that has ravaged the land, killing kings and beggars alike. The plague has brought out both the worst in humanity - as men abandon their families, commit violence, and turn to cannibalism - and has allowed devils to walk the earth in flesh. Meanwhile, in heaven, a great war rages between the fallen angels led by Lucifer and the remaining angels led by Michael, while God has seemingly withdrawn, making no answer to prayers.
Thomas and the priest arrive at Paris, finding a city in the grip of plague and death. The city's gates are mostly closed, and the few guards remaining are sickly and apathetic. They struggle to find lodging, eventually being cheated by a cunning woman who sells them access to a room filled with corpses and filth. After Thomas's angry confrontation with the swindler's family yields nothing, they are rescued by Jean de Rouen, a Norman woodcarver who recognizes their shared heritage when Delphine sings a Norman folk song.
Jean and his wife Annette provide them shelter, food, and warmth. The couple has lost their daughter to the plague, and Annette finds comfort in caring for Delphine, while the girl finds maternal comfort she has long missed. Jean warns them about mysterious creatures that come knocking at night - stone figures that kill anyone who opens their doors. The chapter ends with Thomas confessing to the priest that he is excommunicated, having been stripped of his lands and title after the Battle of Crécy for alleged heresy, sodomy, and blasphemy, though the real reason was political maneuvering to seize his property.
This chapter provides Thomas's backstory through a harrowing account of his participation in the disastrous French defeat at the Battle of Crécy in 1346. Thomas served as a knight under the Comte de Chiffre in the first line of French cavalry that charged the English positions. The English, positioned on elevated ground between two forests, had created a deadly funnel that channeled the French assault into a killing field dominated by English longbowmen.
The battle unfolds as a catastrophic slaughter for the French. Genoese crossbowmen retreat under devastating English arrow fire, and impatient French knights ride over their own fleeing mercenaries. Thomas watches his lord die from multiple arrow wounds while he himself takes an arrow through the face and tongue. The English use primitive cannons and maintain disciplined arrow volleys that decimate wave after wave of French cavalry charges. Despite the overwhelming French numerical advantage, their tactical disadvantage proves fatal.
After the battle, Thomas recovers in Amiens where a surgeon treats his wounds. His loyal squire André brings devastating news: while Thomas was away fighting for king and country, the Comte d'Evreux has seized Thomas's lands, claiming his wife as well. Thomas's wife submitted to avoid a siege, and his son has been declared the new lord under d'Evreux's regency. To complete Thomas's ruin, he has been excommunicated by the Bishop of Laon, stripped of his spurs and cut off from the sacraments. This betrayal, enabled by King Philippe's weakness, drives Thomas to join Godfroy's brigands in Normandy, swearing vengeance against the man who destroyed his life.
Thomas finishes recounting his fall from grace to the priest and Jean, who offers comfort and understanding. The woodcarver needs supplies, so the entire group - Thomas, Père Mathieu, Delphine, Jean, and Annette - ventures to the market on Rue Montfetard, one of the few places in plague-ravaged Paris where people still gather. Annette gifts Delphine yellow woolen stockings and wooden pattens that had belonged to her deceased daughter, and the group navigates the eerily quiet streets to reach the market.
The market remains vibrant despite the plague, with merchants maintaining distance from customers and using various precautions. Foreign traders - Germans, Spaniards, Bohemians, and Florentines in plague masks - continue their commerce. While Jean and Annette shop for food, the group encounters a relic seller, a pale man with green eyes who claims to possess sacred artifacts. Delphine becomes entranced by his display, particularly drawn to what he claims is the oil used by Mary Magdalene and other holy relics.
The relic seller produces an ornate box containing what he claims is the Holy Spear that pierced Christ's side. Despite Thomas's skepticism, both Delphine and the priest are mesmerized by the artifact. Their encounter is interrupted when a mob led by a licensed pardoner identifies the relic seller as a Jew illegally operating in Paris. The crowd demands proof, and when the man's circumcision is revealed, he is arrested and placed in the pillory. That evening, despite warnings about nighttime dangers, Delphine escapes to help the imprisoned man, with Thomas reluctantly following. In a mysterious turn, the brass key that had been useless for their lodging perfectly fits the lock of the pillory, freeing both the Jewish relic seller and a dishonest spice merchant. Before fleeing, the Jew gives Delphine a wooden tube containing what appears to be the true Holy Spear.
The group returns to Jean's workshop where Delphine examines the relic the Jewish merchant gave her - a thin iron rod with a flared point, identified as a pilum (Roman spear point), which she instinctively knows is the actual spear that pierced Christ's side. As night falls, they hear the ominous knocking that Jean had warned them about. Despite the terrifying sounds approaching, they remain barricaded inside, praying and trying to stay quiet.
The horror escalates when they hear a baby crying outside, followed by a woman's voice pleading for help. Against all warnings and Delphine's quiet protests, Thomas opens the door to reveal a nightmarish sight: a six-foot stone statue of the Virgin Mary holding a dead, plague-ridden infant by the ankle. The animated statue speaks with jerky movements, claiming to need help for "her baby" before attacking the household.
A brutal battle ensues in the cramped workshop. The stone Virgin kills both Annette and Jean with savage violence, breaking Annette's arm and crushing Jean's skull with its sceptre. Thomas fights desperately with his sword, managing to break pieces off the creature but unable to stop it completely. When the statue sees the Holy Spear in Père Mathieu's hands, it becomes wary and tries to knock the weapon away using the dead infant as a flail. The priest manages to touch the creature with the spear, causing it to retreat backward into the night, but not before promising Delphine that it "sees" her.
In the aftermath, a fire starts from an overturned candle, forcing them to quickly gather their belongings and flee the burning building. They escape into the night, traumatized and homeless once again, having witnessed the deaths of their kind hosts. As they leave the Latin Quarter, they pass a corrupted church where blood-covered stone saints and apostles hold the corpses of dead children, and these statues mentally assault each of them with personalized, obscene threats and accusations until dawn breaks and the voices stop.
The survivors flee Paris in the rain, leaving behind the burning city where Jean's workshop and the surrounding block are consumed by flames. Delphine reflects on the destruction they've witnessed and worries about causing the deaths of those who help them, remembering the threats made by the evil statues. They travel for days through relentless rain, going without food until they desperately seek shelter in a stone barn.
In the barn, they encounter a naked, wild-haired man on all fours, eating hay and grasses that have been knotted into his hair and beard. The feral figure, clearly mad from starvation or plague, threatens them with a broken scythe before fleeing across the fields when Thomas draws his sword. Thomas grimly jokes that they've encountered Death himself without his robes, bringing some dark humor to their desperate situation.
Taking shelter in the abandoned barn, they build a fire and dry their clothes while discussing their situation. Delphine shows signs of illness with sniffling and abdominal pain, though they don't suspect plague. The priest expresses his desire for wine and music, particularly the lute, while Thomas prefers martial music like drums and cornomusa. They pass time telling stories, with the priest beginning a werewolf tale about a knight whose wife betrays him, hiding his clothes so he cannot transform back from wolf to human form.
Thomas criticizes the story's incomplete and unsatisfying ending, prompting Delphine to provide the proper conclusion where the noble werewolf is vindicated, the treacherous wife is punished, and justice prevails. Their storytelling is interrupted by the return of the wild barn owner, who appears at the window claiming ownership but remains too frightened to enter. Unable to sleep, Thomas and the priest engage in a nighttime conversation about dreams, faith, and their pasts, with the priest revealing his father was a soldier who sent his "bearded daughters" (effeminate sons) to take religious orders while the others were sent to marriage to produce grandsons.
This chapter reveals the backstory of Père Mathieu, the priest traveling with Thomas and Delphine. Two months before the plague arrived at Saint-Martin-le-Pré, Père Mathieu was tormented by his forbidden love for Michel Herbert, the twenty-year-old son of the village reeve. Michel was preparing to leave for Paris to study law, and the priest was consumed with desire, sweating nervously whenever Michel attended Mass in his bright red stockings and gray coat.
The priest's inner turmoil intensified as he struggled with his faith and sexuality. During a homily about wrath and sin, he was publicly mocked by a drover about his drinking, but managed to deflect the criticism skillfully, earning Michel's admiring smile. This encouraged the priest's obsession, though Michel was known to be sexually active with multiple women and had confessed to having impure thoughts about men as well.
The crisis came when Père Mathieu encountered Michel and a girl (Mélisande) bathing in the river at night. Michel invited the priest to join them in the water. The Brotherhood of Saint-Martin's Arse, a group of farmers turned vigilantes who guarded against plague refugees, discovered the priest and Michel together naked in the river. They spat on the priest in disgust and spread the news throughout the village.
When the plague finally arrived, the priest's congregation had dwindled to only a dozen souls who would attend Mass or seek his services. Michel died, along with the reeve and most of the village. The priest, heartbroken and afraid, eventually stopped conducting services altogether until the monster in the river forced the surviving villagers to seek his help. The widow who ran the alehouse, infected by the plague but still serving the Brotherhood, deliberately contaminated their beer with her own blood, contributing to their deaths among the first victims of the pestilence.
This chapter explores the aftermath of Père Mathieu's confession and introduces supernatural horror into the narrative. Thomas questions the priest's story about being caught with a girl rather than the boy, eventually forcing him to admit through careful questioning that it was indeed Michel Herbert, not Mélisande, who remained in the river with him. The priest explains that he lied because he knew Thomas wouldn't travel with a known sodomite, and Thomas confirms this prejudice.
Delphine, showing wisdom beyond her years, tells the priest she wouldn't abandon him regardless of the truth about his sexuality. That night in the barn, a horrifying supernatural entity manifests - described as a mass of tentacles that moves like liquid, "blacker than blood" and "more like the most profound absence of light." The creature enters through the roof and seeps through the floorboards, targeting the sleeping occupants below.
Thomas experiences a vivid, nightmarish dream where he's in a burning landscape reminiscent of the Battle of Hattin during the Crusades. In the dream, he's tormented by thirst and his teeth catch fire, but he resists the temptation of a forbidden pear that would corrupt him. The dream reveals itself to be demonic possession as Thomas awakens to find himself in the process of sexually assaulting Delphine. However, he manages to resist the supernatural influence, violently expelling the dark entity from his body through sneezing.
The incident marks a turning point in the relationships between the three travelers. Thomas becomes kinder to Delphine, and their dynamic shifts to something resembling a father-daughter relationship. Meanwhile, Delphine experiences menarche during the night, symbolically transitioning from childhood to womanhood. The priest observes these changes with some jealousy, feeling excluded from their new intimacy.
This brief chapter focuses on the daily struggles of survival and hints at Delphine's supernatural nature. The trio continues their journey with Delphine walking alongside the cart rather than riding, wearing coarse clothes she found in an abandoned farmhouse where an entire plague-stricken family had died. She reflects on the various ways families were destroyed by the pestilence - some died together, others were abandoned by survivors, and the disease revealed both the worst and best in human nature.
Thomas and Delphine's relationship continues to evolve, with him teasing her playfully about her newfound womanhood, suggesting she can no longer do things boys can do. When she throws a mud clot at him and misses, he jokes about her diminished abilities, prompting her to walk faster and smile secretly. The priest observes their changing dynamic with puzzlement and jealousy, noting that their interaction seems more like that of a favored father and daughter rather than anything carnal.
The chapter emphasizes their desperate hunger as they survive on meager rations of acorns, walnuts, and a single small fish. Delphine entertains them by pretending to cook an elaborate stew of cabbage, pepper, mushrooms, turnips, and pork belly - the very meal they will actually receive later at Saint Lazarus. The priest plays along with her game while Thomas grumbles about their childishness.
The chapter ends with a subtle but significant supernatural element: after they break camp, none of them notice that the maple tree stump Delphine had slept against has grown back into a full tree overnight, suggesting her presence has miraculous properties that can restore life and growth.
This chapter presents both demonic deception and human resilience in the face of plague. The trio encounters a group of knights heading to Avignon for what they claim is a new Crusade summoned by the Pope. The lead knight recognizes Thomas from the Battle of Crécy and offers him a horse to join their company, but Thomas would have to abandon his companions. When Thomas refuses and trades insults with the knights, Delphine warns him that these are "only shades" and that his anger is feeding them - revealing her ability to perceive supernatural entities.
The knights prove to be demonic manifestations when they later find the pimply squire's corpse hanging from a tree with a sign reading "Rapist," confirming these were not real crusaders but evil spirits meant to tempt and deceive.
The town of Nemur refuses them entry, with guards threatening to shoot anyone who approaches. However, they discover Saint Lazarus, a community of plague survivors who have established their own settlement outside the town walls. Led by a practical woman who lost her husband and four daughters but survived with her sons, these survivors follow a harsh but fair system: they only admit people willing to spend their first night in infected blankets, and they've learned that about one in five survive the "swelling kind" of plague.
The trio works for their food - Thomas and the priest build fences while Delphine mends nets. They receive their first proper meal in days, containing exactly the ingredients Delphine had imagined in her pretend stew from the previous chapter. A sparrow defecates on Thomas at the precise moment he tastes the stew, adding dark humor to their good fortune.
The survivors at Saint Lazarus represent hope and human adaptation, having created a functioning community based on shared experience of loss and practical cooperation. Their leader's bitter relationship with God (she only speaks her dead daughters' names to rebuke Him) reflects the spiritual crisis many face, yet their community continues to function and help others.
This chapter introduces the terrifying penitents and culminates in a dramatic confrontation between divine and demonic forces. The trio first encounters evidence of the penitents' passage - unusual track patterns where groups periodically threw themselves to the ground, and white stumps of branches snapped from trees. At Pont-Chalvert, they find a dwarf crucified but alive, voluntarily enduring this suffering for three days as penance to appease God and lift the plague from his town.
Despite the group's moral objections, especially from Delphine, Thomas ultimately respects the dwarf's choice and re-crucifies him after briefly taking him down, recognizing that this is "the one thing I can do as well as anyone else" - the man's dignity lies in his ability to suffer for others.
The penitents, led by the charismatic German Rutger the Fair, arrive in Auxerre promising miracles. Rutger is a powerful, scarred figure whose followers practice extreme flagellation while wearing white skirts stained with blood. Their ritual culminates in an apparent resurrection of three plague victims: Yvette Michonneau (the bishop's mistress), a young barmaid, and Richard (Emma Latour's husband). The crowd is both terrified and amazed as the dead appear to rise at the penitents' command.
However, Delphine arrives and reveals the true nature of this "miracle" by kissing each resurrected person's hand or foot, causing them to peacefully return to death. She explains to the German boy herald, "I'm sorry, it's not your fault, but you're dead, too," before kissing him and revealing him to be a plague-spotted corpse animated by Rutger's dark power.
The chapter climaxes in chaos as the crowd turns violent, some seeing Delphine as a witch while others try to protect her. An angel intervenes by striking many blind and toppling a building to shield Delphine from demonic forces. The supernatural battle between angels and demons becomes visible as Rutger transforms into a multi-eyed monster and a lion-faced knight on a grotesque horse appears.
This apocalyptic chapter depicts a massive supernatural battle between angels and demons in the sky above Auxerre. When Thomas and Père Mathieu discover Delphine has left their camp to help the people of Auxerre, they witness the sky itself becoming a battlefield. The wind behaves unnaturally, alternating between rushing north and south as if something massive is breathing, while the sky glows an eerie green despite the sun being down.
Two tornado-like black clouds emerge from Auxerre, spinning and rising from the ground rather than descending from the sky. These clouds transform before the men's eyes into winged demonic entities - one with two great black wings, another with six wings that fold into each other. The priest recognizes the six-winged creature as a fallen seraph and cries out to God in despair, eventually clinging to a tree in terror while Thomas continues toward the town.
A massive fallen angel appears in the sky, described as having a feline face with black teeth in a glowing mouth. It searches systematically through the area, tearing roofs from houses and overturning carts, clearly hunting for Delphine. When it finds another girl with similar hair, it bites her legs off in disappointment and continues searching. The creature's presence brings a terrible stench and supernatural dread.
Meanwhile, Père Mathieu finds Delphine hiding in the same oak tree he had taken refuge by. Together they witness an epic battle as an angel of light arrives to fight the two demons. The battle rages across the sky above Auxerre, with the angel wielding a sword of pure moonlight against the fallen seraph with its circular mouth of fire and the lion-faced demon. The combat is so intense it shakes the ground and lights fires across the countryside.
The chapter ends in tragedy as the two demons overpower the single angel, driving it down into a barley field where they defeat it with spears of darkness. The angel's death causes every bird in the forest to cry out in anguish, and warm blood rains from the sky. Thomas loses consciousness, overwhelmed by the supernatural horror, while the priest and Delphine remain trapped in their tree, witnesses to what may be the beginning of the end times.