A buxom lady and her handmaid arrive in Arthur's court at Carlisle seeking relief from Jaheli, a religious zealot who is making life miserable in her "Wasted Land" between the Walls, by claiming to host and worship there the Holy Grail. The party of knights and squires sent back with her include Sir Kay's son, Sir Gronosis the Well-Versed in how to tell good from evil, and Sir Harald de Folgeste, once a villainous knight, reformed by the saintly gamine Joiselette, who later went her own mysterious way. Along the way, the party encounters mysterious wonders, shedding some of its members and picking up others. Arrived in the mystic Land Between the Walls, they stop Jaheli from recreate Elijah's Biblical massacre of Pagan priests, and Sir Harald finds Joiselette again, now under the name Maid Portia. At the climax, she deliberately shatters the Grail, explaining that to worship it instead its contents and what it symbolizes, is idolatry. The Wasted Land is set right; the knights and squires return to court wiser -- and happier -- men.
