It is the end of the fifteenth century in northern England, the areas named Cumbria and Northumbria. Isolde Thirlwall and her dearest friend, Arwen the Healer, struggle to raise families and survive on the Thirlwall estate during the tumultuous period known as the War of the Roses. As commanders from the Yorkest faction roam the northern English countryside to conscript soldiers to support Edward IV and Richard III, the women of Thirlwall and the communities of Lambley and Lanercost Abbeys must work together to plant and harvest crops and support their communities through fierce winter blizzards and raging plagues without their husbands. The joys of raising children are tempered by the losses of loved ones. In 1485 the fate of England's future rulers is decided by the Battle of Bosworth Field, the final battle of the War of the Roses. A greater threat to the abbey looms on the horizon with the establishment of the Tudor dynasty.