A fekete vér; Lenczi fráter

A mysterious, nameless scourge sweeps across the countryside, known by many names—“the black woman,” “cholera morbus,” “csuma”—and leaves death in its wake. Entire villages are emptied, churches fall silent, and every traditional remedy fails. The panic spreads from one region to the next, prompting desperate measures: poisoned wells, banned feasts, barricaded bridges, and even the strangling of the very air itself, yet the horror persists, leaping rivers in a single step.

Amid this turmoil, the stoic commander Lenke Lőrincz, a celebrated Hungarian officer, arrives at the Barony of Bárdy, where he is married to the widowed Anna. Their baroque estate, surrounded by dense forest and a winding river, becomes a fragile oasis of order. As the black plague tightens its grip, Lenke must balance his military duties with the growing unrest among the peasants, who are being incited to revolt against the nobility.

The story follows the early clash between an unstoppable, invisible enemy and a society frayed by fear, as both ordinary villagers and seasoned leaders grapple with a threat that defies every known defense.