A WWII fighter plane crashes and although the pilot escapes, his partner burns. Years later, Maggie and Harry Dowl arrive in England to inspect a house left to Maggie by her mother. The house has a dilapidated tennis court, but this seems to have some force which takes over the daughter of John Bray, the local holy man, as well as causing tennis balls to gush blood and kill people with animated nets.
In 12th century Palestine, the Doctor and his friends are drawn into the holy war between the forces of King Richard the Lionheart and the Saracen ruler Saladin.