Haunted by fleeting, nightmarish memories of her childhood on Darkover, Margaret Alton flees her home with her uncommunicative, brooding father to take a job as assistant to musicologist Ivor Davidson, a career that takes her back to Darkover and a terrifying confrontation with the past.

Continuing the saga of the inhabitants of Avalon, a young boy raised in secret after his parents are killed by traitors returns home to prove his worth and lead his followers to victory while wielding the newly forged sword Excalibur.

A prequel to Marion Zimmer Bradley's "The Forest House" follows the story of the Roman conquest of Britain, as a Celtic princess becomes her people's defender against brutal conquerors while her priestess mentor becomes a guardian of Druid traditions.