In the second instalment of the Maze Trilogy, religious fanaticism invades the village at the centre of the Maze: that and strangers from the kingdom usher in a period of change in which chaos rules. Meanwhile, on the outside of the Maze, murder, torture and treachery stalk the politics of the monastery as the despotic Chief Monk pursues the top job. The monastery hospital incarcerates its patients and makes them sicker in body and soul, not better. It is a story of birth, rebirth and renewal; revolution, drug abuse, gang warfare and social unrest; rape, revelations, lies and deceit. But the Maze stands firm.