The dragon Anwyn—who lay for three years in deathlike sleep in a grave of rock and black coal—was freed by the cataclysm that concluded Requiem for the Sun. Disoriented and confused, she remembers only two things: the person who trapped her in dragon form and locked her in the grave—Rhapsody—and an all-encompassing desire to wreak vengeance.

Meanwhile, Achmed, the Firbolg king, resumes rebuilding his shattered home, while a guild of merciless assassins sets about taking revenge on him for the killing of their leader.

Elsewhere, a horribly deformed but magical being finds its way through a carnival of freaks to the palace of an evil despot, who sees in it the instrument by which his plans of conquest and brutal domination of a continent will be realized.

With the rise of new leaders, good and evil; the long-awaited birth of the Child of Time, Meridion; the dark plans of assassins and rulers; a confrontation that shakes the relationship of the Three; and a battle to the death between two dragons of unimaginable elemental power, the seeds of chaos are planted for a war that will, by its end, consume half of the world