Accompany a band of merry medieval pilgrims as they make their way - on motorcycles, of course - to Canterbury. Meeting at the Tabard Inn, the travellers, including a battle-worn Knight, sweetly pretentious Prioress, the bawdy Wife of Bath and emaciated scholar-Clerk, come up with a plan to pass time on the journey to Thomas a Becket's shrine by telling stories.
 
The twenty-four tales, which range from high romance set in ancient Greece to low comedy in contemporary England, are adapted by Chwast in a pitch-perfect rendering of Chaucer's pointed satire. His illustrations and diagrams relate tales of trust and treachery, of piety and bawdiness, in an engaging style that will appeal to those who've enjoyed The Canterbury Tales for years, and those for whom this is a first, delectable introduction.