The year is 1563, and by any account Balthasar Russow can be said to have risen in the world. Fresh from his studies in the German town of Stettin, his part in the peasant uprising a save secret, he has assumed the role of Pastor of Tallinn's Holy Ghost Church. Moreover, he is betrothed to a maiden of the town (much to the chagrin of her father, who has no wish to welcome peasant stock to the family when there is no shortage of upstanding young German men) and is poised to begin the chronicle that will ensure his everlasting fame.

But tribulations still await the now not-quite-young Pastor. Livonia is still plagued by foreign powers - with Tallinn braced to withstand a prolonged Muscovite siege - and by the wretched pestilence itself. An old schoolmate reappears, with a nugget of information that could prove fatal. And Balthasar will discover that, when it comes to matters of the heart, the closer the friend, the more painful the betrayal.