Dean Jocelin has a vision that God has chosen him to erect a great spire on his cathedral. The masons anxiously advise against it, and things have happened around the cathedral which it is better not to question men too closely about. But, without foundations, the spire rises octagon upon octagon, pinnacle by pinnacle, until the stone pillars shriek and the ground beneath it swims. Its shadow falls darkly on the world below, and most darkly on the Dean himself. The Spire is an impressively powerful portrait of one mans possessed will, and of the towering folly he creates