In the 9th century when a ravaged England was emerging from an era of pillage, arson and rapine, and beginning instead to enjoy an era of peace with the Viking marauders, a Saxon girl called Astrid, her Viking husband, Krodin, and their five- year-old son Kol, live in the shadow of threatened vengeance from a king who wanted her for himself.

Astrid is betrayed and her safe world shattered when the Norse King Halfdan sends arrogant, black-clad Ragnar, on a mission of death.

Set against a backcloth of passion and violence, Astrid's sworn vengeance on the man she learns to love and her search for a heritage for young Kol, take her to Iceland and Norway, and, finally, through uncharted seas to a new land where bloodthirsty savages play a dramatic and vital part in their lives.