1170. On a dark December evening in the candlelit cloisters of Canterbury Cathedral, Archbishop Thomas Beckett is hacked to pieces by four murderous knights. As the monks flee, one young novice stands his ground as witness to the bloody events. His name is Edward and what he sees will haunt him for the rest of his life. Some twenty years later, as a healer who has renounced monastic life, Edward becomes physician to the Lionheart - the legendary King Richard of England - and embarks with him on Crusade for the Holy Land. Yet waiting are three of the surviving killers of Beckett, knights excommunicated and banished by a remorseful King Henry II, father of Richard. These rogue knights have not forgotten or forgiven. What they now seek is revenge on the royal house of Plantagenet. What they seek is blood, the death of Richard the Lionheart. The physician Edward too remembers the past. It is left to him to thwart the threat and save the life of his king.