"Tumultuous events take place in 12th-century England during a period of civil war and church-and-state intrigue known as the Anarchy. “Pillars,” based on a thousand-page novel by Ken Follett, uses the building of the fictitious Kingsbridge Cathedral (modeled on the cathedrals of Wells and Salisbury) to tie together a story involving murdered royals, scheming clerics, master builders and shrewd businesswomen. Emerging from the war-torn shadows of England’s Dark Ages, an idealistic mason, Tom Builder (Rufus Sewell) sets out on a quest of erecting a glorious Cathedral bathed in light. But when that light threatens to illuminate the dark secrets of ambitious Bishop Waleran Bigod (Ian McShane) and the battling progeny of King Henry, Queen Maud (Alison Pill, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) and King Stephen (Tony Curran), they’ll stop at nothing to keep those secrets safe! The epic miniseries event also stars Matthew MacFadyen as Prior Philip, Hayley Atwell as the beautiful noblewoman Aliena and Donald Sutherland as Bartholomew."