Hunter has been a soldier, monk, rebel, thief, and kingmaker - or queenmaker, to be precise. Now he wants nothing more than to settle down with Marna, his long-lost daughter, and to court lovely Dahlia Rancher.

Hunter's quick trip to fetch Marna unravels when he and Chekwe, his best friend, arrive at Hunter's ancestral home to discover that Marna has been kidnapped.

The friends track Marna to their old battlefield haunts in the north, dogged by old foes and finding new enemies every step of the way: seers and necromancers, warlords and heretics, once-dead warriors and renegade pacifists. Their only friend is Dru, a woman pushed out of her job as a constable by men returning from the Orgooth wars.

With Dru's help and the grudging support of a new king, Hunter builds a force capable of rescuing Marna. It's a plan that just might work, if the Orgooth don't jump into the fray too. But with Chekwe and his pet kitten on the prowl for whisky, milk, and something to kill, nothing Hunter plans is certain.