Eleven year old Astralabe’s windswept days stretch by. Afternoons at the Abbey, trying to concentrate on his lessons; hours mesmerised by the lilac sky mirrored in the stingers washed up at his feet; cool evenings spent absorbing the whisperings of the village.

Astralabe is alone. The infamous child of Abelard and Heloise’s forbidden love, his parents are as dazzling and distant as the stars. Astralabe’s origins separate him from the residents of the abbey just as his learning breeds suspicion among the villagers. The boy devotes every spare moment to earning his absent father’s good opinion. Letters and treatises – his texts of the world – are sealed with hope, sent seemingly into the void.

But those around him have other concerns: lambs born mangled, healthy young women fail. Discontent in the village blooms, and as the tension between the villagers and monks increases, inquisitive Astralabe begins to see what so many around him cannot.