We are in Rodez, a town in southwestern France, during the Hundred Years War. A pot of gold is found in a drain. Does it belong to the man who claims it or to his befuddled father-in-law? In a Fool and His Money, Ann Wroe unravels the mystery of the gold coins and reveals the rich and perplexing culture of a medieval city divided - as so many communities are today - into rival political units.