It’s 1348 and group of soldiers are returning to their village from the wars in France accompanied by a hostage. Waiting anxiously for her husband in the crowd is Lady Matilda Mellerby, who is devastated to hear that her much older husband, Sir Walter Mellerby, has also been taken hostage and is being held to ransom in France. As if things were not bad enough, the Parish owes the greedy local bishop taxes that are already overdue. Walter’s nephew Nicholas who is one of the soldier hopes that the prisoner Jacques de Saint Amant, the son of a French Nobleman, will yield a high ransom to save Sir Walter and also the estate from the hands of the Bishop.

Matilda has been told by her advisers that she must visit the Bishop to beg for more time to pay him. Having sold all of her expensive gowns and without something suitable to wear for the visit, Matilda is forced to rummage through a trunk of old clothes that once belonged to Walter’s late wife Joan. Matilda asks the Bishop for a further ten days and he agrees on one condition. Should she fail to pay on time, Matilda must satisfy the Bishop in the ’47 different ways’ that are depicted in a series of pornographic drawings that he owns.

Returning to the estate, Matilda finds that Nicholas has nearly killed Jacques in a drunken brawl nearly jeopardising the safe return of Walter and her honour. Matilda nurses Jacques back to health but finds that she is becoming strangely attracted to the prisoner. Shortly after the brawl Nicholas’ dead body is found covered in the trademark dark boils a pestilence that is raging across Europe. Upon examination of the body the word ‘ANAZAPTA’ is found carved into Nicholas’ back and the advisers of the Mellerby estate, the Physician, Priest and Steward agree to keep this disturbing information from Matilda.

It is decided that the soldiers must have brought the plague with them from France and each is examined in turn. The Physician then examines Jacques for signs of the Plague but instead of finding the telltale buboes, he finds something that disturbs him far more. An inverted cross has been burned into Jacques’ chest. He runs from the estate in terror.

Knowing that Jacques is not who he says he is, the Physician is forced to remember Walter’s first wife Joan and her violent demise at the hands of multiple rapists.

In what appears to be a trance, Jacques holds a religious amulet and is racked by violent visions of Joan’s rape. Matilda’s dreams mirror Jacques’ visions as if her has the power to communicate with her in a mystical way. Waking with a start, she clutches at her throat and tugs on Jacques’ amulet, which has found its way around her neck. Matilda instinctively knows that the amulet belonged to Joan and searches the old clothes trunk for clues. She eventually finds an ornate silver casing into which the amulet fits perfectly.

One by one those responsible for Joan’s dreadful rape begin to die mysteriously from the Black Plague. Half of a Latin phrase is carved on the Physician’s body; the other half scrawled at the scene of the steward’s death. Matilda is stunned to find that the Latin phrase and an unfamiliar word, ANAZAPTA, is imprinted on the amulet. Deciding that she needs to investigate further Matilda exhumes Nicholas’ body only to find the word ANAZAPTA carved into his back. Checking through the Parish records Matilda then discovers that a man named Thomas Basset was hung in the village on the same day that Joan was raped. Strangely, there is no record of what happened to Joan after this point. Matilda is determined to discover Joan’s fate and how her death is connected to the spread of the pestilence that is destroying the Parish.

The priest receives a letter from Jacques de Saint Amant’s father that says his son Jacques died on the French battlefield. The Priest confronts Jacques with the news branding him a charlatan and demanding to know his true identity. Jacques reveals the inverted cross that has been branded on his chest, terrified the priest falls to the ground begging for forgiveness.

Fearing for their lives and blaming the soldiers for the plague that is spreading light wildfire throughout the parish, the villagers throw the surviving soldiers into the stocks. Running from the manor in an attempt to protect the infected soldiers, Matilda scorns the villagers for their cruelty. Drawing the villagers’ attention from the stocks, the priest stands on the roof of the manor and foretells of the impending doom that is about to befall before he throws himself to his death.

Terrified the crowd turn on Jacques and drag him to the well for trial by water. They immerse him repeatedly until he looses consciousness. Matilda screams at the villagers explaining that Jacques’ ransom would have paid for the safe return of Sir Walter and to put food in their children’s mouths. Heeding the advice of a villager, Matilda performs mouth-to-mouth resuscitation reviving Jacques with only moments to spare.

Monks passing through the village assist with the dead and the dying. One of the monks offers Matilda safe passage out of the Parish but explains that they can only take her so far. He also tells Matilda the meaning of the word ANAZAPTA explaining that it is an old religious charm against sickness and suffering. Originally from the village, another monk explains that he used to be a goldsmith and had made an amulet with the inscriptions she had spoken of for a man named Thomas Basset. The monk explains that he only saw Basset twice, on the day he paid for the amulet and on the day he was hanged for his love affair with Joan. Matilda asks about Joan’s fate and the monk tells her that on the day of Basset’s death Sir Walter offered a shilling to every man in the village who would ‘fuck my wife’.

That night Jacques shares his night vision of Joan’s rape with the whole village, he urges Matilda to stay with her people, as they need forgiveness and absolution. The Bishop arrives the following day to exact his price or sexual favours. Before Matilda consents to his wishes she persuades the Bishop to give the Parish communion. As the mass begins, we see Jacques cut into the inverted cross on his chest with a knife, and as the blood drips from the wound we see drops of blood falling into the chalice contaminating the communion wine with plague.

While she queues for communion, Jacques’ prison guard reveals his suspicions to Matilda and explains that he cared for Joan after her rape. He reveals that Joan lived long enough to deliver a child who was branded with an inverted cross by Walter and the villagers. He reminds her of Joan’s tortured words about the villagers choking on her blood and Matilda refuses the communion wine just in time.

Returning to the Manor Matilda confronts Jacques about who he is and they end up making love. Cloaked and covered in mud Walter returns to his Parish to find dead villagers strewn across the ground – apart from Matilda and the guard they are all dead. Walter enters the manor in time to witness the act between Matilda and Jacques. Upon seeing the branding on Jacques chest, Walter announces that he killed Joan’s child at birth, ripping out its’ heart and eating it. Walter then beats Jacques within inches of death but is killed at last by his wife’s hand.

Explaining that it is now over, Jacques leaves Matilda. We see his shrouded figure walking across fields until he comes to another village. A woman calls the name ‘William’ and as he smiles in response we see that his face has transformed into that of another man.

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