After painting the mystical scenes that unlocked the realm of the dead, Aengus the Painter and his lover, the beautiful sorceress Rose, are stricken senseless. The last thing the Painter sees as his spirit leaves his body is Rose's tortured eyes, begging for help. When he revives on an unfamiliar shore, his memory is a frustrating blank. The people believe he is Marner, a mighty stranger from the sea who once freed them from an evil emperor. They hope he has come to save them again from a terrifying ruler who preys upon souls. Buffeted by tantalizing glimpses of his past, Aengus fights the undying Emperor of Earth-Above—and discovers the shocking truth that binds him and Rose to Marner's fate.