In 1380, the priest Nicholas flees his village after being found in flagrante delicto with a married woman. During his flight, he witnesses a group euthanise a member to relieve his long-recurring internal pain. This brutal act brings him to the attention of the traveling acting troupe, who initially mistake him for a robber and briefly explain the killing. Reluctantly, they invite him to join as a replacement for the deceased member, accepting him into their fragile, nomadic world.
On the road to the next town, their path is disrupted by a collapsed bridge, forcing them to reroute and mend their empty, money-less cart. The troupe eventually reaches a strange town whose castle is under reconstruction. There, they witness a woman being sentenced to death for killing a boy, based on the testimony of Benedictine monk Simon Damian. The troupe performs a Biblical passion play, but the turnout is so small that they cannot bury the dead troupe member or repair their broken cart.
The troupe’s leader, Martin, decides to stage a new play drawn from the events surrounding the boy’s death. He and Nicholas visit the mute, condemned woman in the dungeons, growing convinced of her innocence. The crowd sees her as a seductress, which inflames the parents of the dead boy and others who value virtue and strength. From the castle, Plantagenet Lord de Guise surveys the scene, sending the sheriff to clear the square by force. As the crowd disperses, townsfolk share additional details about the boy’s death or disappearance.
They are ordered to leave the town by dawn, but Nicholas’s determination drives him to uncover the truth firsthand. At night, the body is unearthed and shown to have suffered sodomy before death and exposure to the plague. The King’s Justice and his squire arrive, sharing suspicions. Nicholas is forced to depart, yet soon returns in disguise as a monk. The troupe continues toward Durham, while Martin steps back from leadership and relinquishes his role.
Nicholas studies the death, noting the transition from limpness to rigor mortis, and seeks out the monk who testified at the trial to learn more. The monk reveals he had nothing to do with the death and hints at protecting someone else. Nicholas leaves and is found by Martin. They learn from the King’s Justice that the monk has been found dead, erasing any chance of evidence about de Guise’s proclivities and revealing that de Guise plans a revolt to seize the English throne.
The sheriff reveals that wherever de Guise goes, boys disappear. Nicholas gathers more evidence that the condemned woman is not the killer, as the body showed recent rigor mortis. An execution is prepared, but the troupe returns and seizes the scaffold to turn it into a stage for their latest play, exposing fresh information to the crowd. The crowd’s fury toward de Guise intensifies, and guards are called out again to clear the square. The troupe girds the church while, unknown to them, de Guise is there performing an act of penitence.
Nicholas presents his findings to de Guise, who admits everything with a defiant air, convinced he is untouchable under the feudal system. When de Guise questions Nicholas about his own sins, Nicholas confesses that he killed the husband of the woman he was found with, after she attacked him. Leaving the scene, de Guise learns that Nicholas has been exposed to the plague. As de Guise walks toward his castle through a mob of townsfolk, the portcullis remains down, and the crowd eddies around him, eventually lynching him and setting the castle alight.
The new town authorities hope the deaths will be forgotten, while the King’s Justice vows that Nicholas’s work will reach the king, though Sarah reminds them that Nicholas acted for the wrongly accused and his own redemption. Martin declares that Nicholas will live on in their new play, planned for a performance in Durham, and the troupe departs as the castle burns to the ground, leaving behind a town seeking to start anew and a tale that will endure in their performances.
