Following directly on from the events of TO GREEN ANGEL TOWER, the Norns and the Storm King Ineluki have been defeated at the Battle for the Hayholt; Seoman and Miriamele, the new king and queen, order their victorious armies to shadow the retreating Norns. One of the enemy group is escorting the huge funeral cortege of one of their leaders, on their journey they become detached and trapped in the ancient fortress of Tangleroot on the frontier. As well as their dead lord, they carry a great magical artefact, a stone called the Heart of What Was Lost, one of the last relics of their ancient civilization. Soon the fortress is invested, the battle commences, and bloodshed and magic flow.