Marvelous! It is one of the best examples of why I love historical fiction. There is no more enjoyable way to learn about other places, times, and the people that inhabit them, than a well-written novel of historical fiction. The book focuses on a town in what is now western Germany in the 1200s. Some characters/families are followed throughout the book. Others come and go. A cathedral (and its expansion) is the physical center of the novel. I learned so much about life at that time for peoples at many levels of the social strata.