In 1470, in the great City of London, the great French poet, Francois Villon, was in trouble. He had a talent for it. Carted off to Newgate prison, he is thrown into the company of that master of English crime and prose, Sir Thomas Malory. Knight Prisoner is told by Fremin-Villon's put-upon secretary who has never had an adventure of his own-he tells the story of the meeting of these two masters of writing and crime, while looking back at their early criminal adventures. Both men's lives curiously echo their literary work. It also becomes the story of Fremin himself, as he grows from being the servant of two great men, into his own manhood. The legal and romantic situations go from bad to worse until there is only one man they can turn to, the old Knight in the prison.