A Time of Omens takes up many threads in the rich tapestry of Deverry's history: it tells of Dallashandra's struggle to help Evandar's people - the strange and evanescent Guardians - survive, by finding them a new home on the material plane.

It charts the progress of the Deverry civil wars during the ninth century, and especially focuses on the return of the true king - Maryn - to Dun Cerrmor and his marriage to the young Bellyra; of Rhodry's adventurings as a silver dagger during the wars; and of the strange talisman entrusted to his keeping. And we meet once more the seductive and infuriating Salamander as he searches for and finds a lost love; and witness the beginning of Jill's search for the lost elves of the Southern Isles.