In this huge, enthralling novel, the legend of King Arthur is for the first time told through the lives, the visions, the perceptions of the women central to it. For the first time, the Arthurian world of Avalon and Camelot with all its passions and adventures - the world that, through the centuries, each generation has re-created in countless works of fiction, poetry, and drama - is revealed as it might have been experienced by its heroines: by Queen Guinevere, Arthur's wife; by Igraine, his mother; by Viviane, the majestic Lady of the Lake, High Priestess of Avalon; and, most important, by Arthur's sister, Morgan, who has come down to us as Morgan of the Faeries, as Morgan Le Fay - as sorceress, as witch - and who in this epic retelling of the story plays a crucial role both in Arthur's crowning and destruction. Above all it is a story of profound conflict between Christianity and the old religion of Avalon.