The Burning Times sweeps readers into fourteenth-century France and into the life of Sybille, a young midwife well-schooled in the art of white magic. As the Inquisition spreads throughout Europe, she flees her village and joins a Franciscan sisterhood. Her extraordinary powers soon attract the attention of the Church, however, and a monk is sent to hear her confession on behalf of the Inquisition. His charge: to discover whether the mysterious abbess is a saint or a witch.

In captivating prose, Sybille tells the story of her life, revealing the wisdom that helped her win the hearts of ordinary people and the cunning that terrorized Church authorities. But even witches are not immune to earthly love, and Sybille used all the powers she possessed in a daring quest to be reunited with her beloved. In hearing her confession, the monk is drawn more deeply and intimately into Sybille's life and destiny than either of them could have imagined.

Like a magician herself, Jeanne Kalogridis weaves a tale of star-crossed love, of faith and heresy, mysticism and witchcraft against the backdrop of such historical events as the Black Death, the Hundred Years' War, and the catastrophic defeat of France at the hands of the English. The result is a moving novel and a richly detailed tapestry of one of the most intriguing periods in history.