The very different worlds of two remarkable young men - one aboard a Norse ship bound for plunder and the other living in an abbey in an English village - are intertwined in this gripping historical adventure.

Like all the men of Spjothof, seventeen-year-old Lidsmod was trained to be a warrior. Without their voyages to distant lands - and without their battles for treasure - the people of his village could not survive. Fighting men, Lidsmod knows, must show no feelings. But something stirs in him when he is assigned watch over Wiglaf, a thirteen-year-old captive with a withered arm. Wiglaf can't stop the slaughter of his people, and yet he still has the power to heal.