In 'The Canterbury Tales', Geoffrey Chaucer created one of the masterpieces of our language; and in 1386 a crisis created Geoffrey Chaucer. It was the turning point in a life that followed years of mixing with royalty, marital ups and downs, and financial struggle - but precious little poetry. Through this dark point in Chaucer's life, Paul Strohm reveals to the reader not only the whole man, but also the crowded world of medieval London.