France, 1076. Hermance Languedolce, a child with miraculous healing powers, falls in with religious rebels and is branded a heretic. Hideously tortured, he summons a miracle and saves himself, only to be taken in by kind gypsies. When fearsome warrior Karlis Oresund is converted to Christ, he too receives a miraculous ability to sense evil. Entering the service of Bohemond of Taranto, he sets forth on a crusade to the Holy Land, conscripting Hermance by force along the way. Hermance can't or won't remember his powers, but can Karlis bring them out of the scarred young man?

Constantinople, 1097. As Black Liv leads the Holy Militia deeper into Turkey, he must contend with lords above his station quarreling over glory and the spoils of war, as well as the treachery of Basileus Alexios Komnenos. Meanwhile, Hermance, coming back into his full powers as a healer and miracle worker, saves the life of Tafur Princess Istvana when the Militia is forced to take a perilous route through the Taurus Mountains. Will the Princess' love for both men drive them apart when their armies need them most, at the gates of the daunting and impregnable city of Antioch?

Antioch has fallen, betrayed by one of its own. Still, times are dire for the occupying crusaders, caught between forces holding out in a citadel at the heart of the city, and a new Turkish army outside its gates, outnumbering their own forces ten to one. Plague and starvation whittle down their numbers, but Hermance is of no help: the light of his holy healing gift seems to have been doused by his affair with the Tafur princess Istvana. Jealousy consumes Black Liv while his captains Bohemond and Raymond of Toulouse quarrel over spoils. What miracle will save the day?

Plundering, ransoming, and warring, the Frankish lords make their way to Jerusalem, the City of Kings, even as the terrible love triangle between Hermance "Devil-Foot" Languedolce and Karlis "Black Liv" continues to torment the three of them in different ways. "We are each with the one we love most," the Tafur Princess Istvana tells Black Liv. "I with Hermance, and you with God." But will this truth prove more than Karlis' black heart can bear? Will it drive him to sacrifice the very reason he has come all this way: to take back the Holy Sepulcher from the Muslims?