They fall in love early, but Caris, being the headstrong one, won't become subservient to a husband. This puts Merthin in a funk, but he soldiers on and, with brains and ingenuity, becomes a resourceful builder.
But Merthin grows weary of the chase, and when circumstances conspire to make Caris unavailable, he leaves Kingsbridge and starts a new life in Florence, Italy, where he becomes incredibly successful.
This is when things really go south for all the inhabitants of World Without End. The plague hits Europe, and people are dying by the thousands. Merthin loses his Italian wife, but he and his young daughter are somehow spared. He decides it's time to return to Kingsbridge and start life over.
While the plague does its worst to the people of Kingsbridge, it also provides Caris with the vehicle to strut her stuff. She has an uncanny ability to sense what should be done. And, while she can't stop the plague's progress, she manages to slow it down.
That is not easy, since the medical procedures she institutes fly in the face of accepted norms as practiced by the so-called learned priest-physicians, and she has to wage that battle, too. But Caris being Caris - and maybe half a millennium ahead of her time - she struggles through and becomes something of a local heroine.
There is more - a lot more - to the story, but you get the gist.
It's fair to say that you won't read this tome in one or even a half-dozen sittings, but reading it won't seem as long as it is. With World Without End, Follett takes you to a time long past and does so with brio and razor-sharp storytelling skills. He has crafted an epic tale in which you will willingly lose yourself for quite a spell.
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