A Scandal at the Priory

By Margaret Stenerson

In 1966, at the height of America's social upheaval, a young woman enters religious life seeking purpose, structure, and God. What she finds inside the walls of the Priory is something else entirely.

Assigned to teach and serve in a bustling convent-school system, Sister Vincent is earnest, intelligent, and eager to devote her life to faith. But beneath the quiet rituals and orderly vows lies a shadowed world of power, secrecy, and spiritual manipulation. And at its center is Sister Gertrude-charismatic, ambitious, and dangerously entangled with Vincent in ways the younger nun cannot yet name.

What begins as mentorship spirals into coercion and emotional captivity. Forbidden "particular friendships," hidden punishments, and the threat of reassignment become tools of control. As the tension between duty and desire tightens, Vincent must confront a truth she has never been taught to face: some sins are not of the flesh, but of power.

A Scandal at the Priory is a gripping, deeply human account of innocence confronted by corruption, and of one woman's journey to reclaim her voice, her faith, and her life. Both intimate and unflinching, it illuminates a chapter of religious history rarely spoken aloud-and the quiet strength of those who survived it.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1876565039
• ISBN13: 9781876565039
• Release Date: November 2025
• Publisher: Tin House Press
• Length: 74 Pages
• Weight: 0.18 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 5.0" x 8.0"