The Lord of Santa Isabel Province has been beheaded in his castle by a nun, and the locals know she was a sister from the Santa Isabel Convent. This assassination lures barbarians, a local queendom, and the empires of the Yukkukers and the Momummers to try to take advantage to pillage and conquer the province. It also attracts criminals of various kinds; one beggar/thief comes to the province and lives in a cave in The Enchanted Forest. The nuns recruit the beggar/thief to warn them of invaders or the presence of enemy forces. Because of the magic the nuns seem to possess, The beggar/thief becomes determined to get inside the convent, which is forbidden to men. The assassin nun had leapt from the ramparts of the castle into the moat, abandoned her habit, and run naked into the woods. The beggar/thief decides to recover the habit to use as a disguise to get into the convent. So he disguises himself as a friar on a pilgrimage to the Abbey of Weal. On the way, he meets a young woman named Missy, who wants to travel with him, so he can help her become a nun. They encounter trolls and ogres, which is a foreshadowing of coming adventures on behalf of the nuns as they promote the beggar/thief to greater responsibilities. He will encounter dwarves and elves, witches and demons, phoenixes and dragons as his power increases and he and Missy become involved in a relationship.