The novel by Ken Follett is a grandiose panorama of the darkest years in the history of England, when the struggle for the throne and internecine wars were the usual background of life. The author unfolds to the reader woven into a single tangle of stories of a variety of people - from simple artisans to graphs and members of royal families - and follows his heroes for more than half a century. A whole world of passions and crimes, intrigues, secrets, fears, love and fidelity has been recreated, against the background of which the construction of the tallest cathedral in England is slowly and majestically unfolding. The book amazes the imagination, keeps in suspense until the denouement, this epic canvas is inherent in the magnetism of the detective and the thriller.