In the year 4372 B.C. Marrah, a daughter of the peace-loving Shore People, is poised on the brink of womanhood. On the day of the sacred ceremony, a stranger is washed up by the angry sea. He is Stavan, a warrior whose people are threatening a peaceful land with violence.

As Marrah teaches him the ways of love, he warns her of the terror to come. And together they begin a journey that will take them from the cave paintings of France through European forests where lions still roam, to the vast Eastern steppes. Somehow Marrah must save her people from the masculine force bent on crushing their feminine spirit...