This book is set in England during the reign of King Alfred Uhtred is an English boy, born into the aristocracy of ninth-century Northumbria Orphaned at ten, he is captured and adopted by a Dane and taught the Viking ways Yet Uhtred's fate is bound up with Alfred, King of Wessex, who rules over the only English kingdom to survive the Danish assault The struggle between the English and the Danes and the strife between Christianity and paganism is the background to Uhtred's growing up He is left uncertain of his loyalties but a slaughter in a winter dawn propels him to the English side and he will become a man just as the Danes launch their fiercest attack yet on Alfred's kingdom