Linden Avery watches from a balcony while Thomas Covenant and her adopted son, Jeremiah, ride desperately toward Revelstone. But their reunion has vast consequences which she could not have foreseen. Soon she is betrayed by the people whom she most needs to trust. Transported deep into the Land's past, she is forced to confront mysterious strangers, legendary heroes and ancient evils and to stand alone against the malevolence of the Despiser's minions.

Abandoned in Garroting Deep, the most bloodthirsty of the Land's long-dead forests, she reaches a fearsome decision: she determines to reshape reality in an attempt to end the Despiser's evil and her son's suffering. However, her purpose requires her to find Loric's krill, a weapon abandoned among the Hills of Andelain millennia ago. And she needs the aid of friends and allies who will turn against her if she reveals her intent.