Following the unexpected death of his friend and mentor, Dr Thoroughgood, George Crandall returns to the Twenty-second Century to visit him before he dies. Then Hilda and her children return to the Thirteenth Century for a visit and things get really complicated when, the day after they leave, Hilda's son George returns, eight years older, and determined to accompany George on the disastrous invasion of France in 1359. George records in stark detail the disintegration of King Edward's hopes for the crown of France, the privations that lead to thousands of deaths - and, almost coincidentally, the capture of the budding poet, Geoffrey Chaucer - and the final indication of Divine displeasure at Edward's arrogance as the English army is destroyed by a catastrophic storm. Yet out of it all George and his god-son emerge the richer by a wife and the inestimable gift of faith.