Embittered by his betrayal by crooked clergy, Murdo leaves his native Scotland in search of his father. Joining a band of monks, he embarks on a journey that takes him far beyond the rolling fields of home, beyond fabled Constantinople and the brooding walls of Antioch, to the Holy Land and the sword points of the Saracens.

There, where blood, suffering, and human evil at its most horrifying are shot through with rays of the miraculous, he encounters the Iron Lance -- the actual weapon that pierced Jesus on the cross. And there he grows from a callow youth to a man, trading anger and cynicism for devotion to Christ, and selfishness for the heart of a leader. He returns at hast to his home to set right a bitter wrong, and to establish a kingdom where faith can dwell in peace.