Each episode in The Ramsay Scallop introduces new characters and settings that end with a discovery, or mini-climax. As Elenor and Thomas travel down the Pilgrim Way toward the next adventure, they gain selfknowledge and respect for each other as chaste friends. Near the end of their journey they discover that they are attracted to each other as man and woman and decide to marry when they reach their final destination, the Shrine of Saint James at Santiago de Compostela. They leave behind their feelings of dread and guilt for past sins and look forward to life in a new century.

Using sensory details, Temple describes the medieval market scene at Peterborough and Elenor's appearance as an unkempt tomboy. Thomas describes her as "wily as a rabbit, alert as a grasshopper with its antennae out." On the journey Thomas and Elenor wear heavy, dark clothing and...