"...I'm going to leave the Land—try to find the One Tree. So I can replace the Staff of Law. I don't know what else to do," Covenant said. "I don't know how long I'm going to be gone, and every day they kill more people. Somebody has to stop them."

Thus Thomas Covenant, accompanied by Linden Avery, begins his search for the One Tree aboard the giantship Starfare's Gem. Armed with the knowledge given to him in Andelain by his trusted friend, the Forestal Hile Troy, Covenant was determined to succeed. He was the last hope for the salvation of the Land, because only he had the power to forge a new Staff of Law and, with it, to stop the encroaching desecration of the Sunbane and the bloody sacrificial rites of the Clave.

But fate decreed that the journey was to be long, arduous, and fraught with danger as Covenant and his companions are assailed by powerful forces whose sole purpose is to ensure the failure of their quest.