The story is set in medieval England, where the natural environment, pestilence, and disease are as much adversaries as the politics of Richard I's reign. The survival of the people depends on their sense of community, on their personal strength, and on their understanding and appreciation of the healing power of nature. The Forestwife, a wise-woman of the healing arts (a "witch" of sorts) has a deep and powerful relationship with the green world. She possesses the ability, in perceptiveness as well as in her knowledge of herbal lore, to take care of the people seeking refuge in Sherwood Forest. In exchange, they provide her with security and protection from those whose fear and misunderstanding of the "witch" threaten both her personhood and her knowledge.