Uhtred is a Saxon, cheated of his inheritance, and adrift in a world of fire, sword, and treachery. He has to make a choice: to fight for the Vikings, who raised him, or for King Alfred the Great of Wessex, who dislikes him.

In the late ninth century, Wessex is the last English kingdom. All the rest have fallen to the Danish Vikings, and the Vikings want to finish England. They assemble the Great Army, whose sole ambition is to conquer Wessex. Yet fate, as Uhtred learns, has its own imperatives. When the Vikings attack out of a wintry darkness to shatter the last English kingdom, Uhtred finds himself on Alfred's side.