There is a fate worse than death on Mars, and when Captain Jack Carter returns to Mars after being separated from his beloved wife and son for a weary ten years, he finds himself in the Valley Dor, the one place inescapable for even the bravest of the Barsoomian warriors.A place of both dread and hope, the Valley Dor belongs to the Gods of Barsoom, a people whom John Carter unmasks as cruel and parasitic race which feeds on the superstitious myths of the Barsoomians. And behind it all is a withered old woman whose heart is shriveled with hate and will stop at nothing to maintain her grasp on the people of Mars. She knows the secret to hurting John Carter: his wife, Dejah Thoris.