Germany, 1415 AD. In Constance, the sixteenth ecumenical council is in full swing: European rulers and the clergy for the first time managed to unite to resolve the problem of the Papal Schism. All attention is focused on the momentous event—every day balancing on the brink of collapse—while the combined efforts of the Congregation and the Empire are directed toward bringing the matter to a conclusion. However, daily services have not been canceled, and the inquisitor of the first rank, Kurt Gesse, must find out what has been going on in the forests around a distant town forgotten by God for an entire year.