Cadfael - Season 1

Cadfael has settled down to a quiet religious life at Shrewsbury Abbey after an adventurous, and far from monastic, youth, fighting as a crusader in the Holy Land. King Stephen successfully besieges the nearby castle, and orders 94 of the occupants put to death, but Cadfael discovers there are 95 corpses to prepare for burial. He realises that he has uncovered a murder, and gains King Stephen's permission to try to solve the crime. The trail follows a cache of hidden treasure, the fleeing daughter of the castle's owner, Godith, and an up-and-coming local young man, Hugh Beringar.

When Shrewsbury's goldsmith, Walter Aurifaber, is robbed and left for dead, the locals launch a witch-hunt. Pursued by the mob, the prime suspect, a young juggler, Liliwin, who performed at the wedding of the goldsmith's son Daniel, seeks sanctuary at the Abbey. But as Cadfael investigates, he finds floating in the River Severn the dead body of Baldwin Peche. The hunt for the Aurifaber's robber and Peche's murderer leads in an unexpected direction, given hints by the dying words of the grandmother of the goldsmith's house, Juliana Aurifaber.

A great wedding is to take place at the Abbey, between a beautiful young heiress, Iveta de Massard, the grand-daughter of famed crusader Guimar de Massard, with whom Cadfael had fought at Jerusalem, and the powerful, much older Baron Huon de Domville. But it is no love match, as she is being coerced by her guardians, Godfrid & Agnes Picard. The baron disappears on the night before the wedding, only to be found lying dead in the forest. Cadfael examines the body and determines that he was murdered. Abbot Heribert authorises him to persue the case further.

After a wealthy landowner, Gervase, cuts his stepson, Edwin Gurney, out of his will, in order to leave his inheritance to the Abbey, he is poisoned at his dinner table. When Cadfael is called in to investigate, he is shocked to discover that the man's wife, Richildis, is his childhood sweetheart, whom he has not seen for forty years. Meanwhile Abbot Heribert is summoned away by the church authorities, and returns accompanied by the new abbot, Radulfus.