Late in the Middle Ages an English noblewoman, Mathilda Fitzjohn, commissions a book of hours to be created for her family. She particularly requests the master illuminator John Dancaster of London to illustrate the book, a job he accepts with alacrity for times are tough and it is a great honor. Mathilda however is unaware of the secrets hidden in the illuminator’s workshop, secrets John’s wife Gemma knows could bring about their ruin.
Mathilda’s reading of the book is woven together with the personal stories of the people who come together to make it. All of the drama as it unfolds is engrossing, but it is the book itself and the art of illumination that steals the show, in all its colour and detail.
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