A story of love and war, of prejudice and acceptance, and the struggle of one family caught between mortal and immortal foes . . .

As a young man, Tirren, the son of the ruler of Thiery, was abducted and seduced by an Elven woman, Yslaaran. The unsettling event turned life-changing when she reappeared a year later and handed him his infant son, though the reasons for her actions remained a mystery.

For seventeen years, Tirren has met the challenge of raising his half-Elven son in a land that hates and fears the Elves, but his son’s struggle for acceptance is only one source of Tirren’s pain. The other is his unfading desire for the immortal lover who spent one night with him and vanished. When a neighboring ruler threatens war, Tirren rides to the skirmishes with his son at his side, but Yslaaran learns of the growing political strife and fears it will unravel her long-laid plans. She returns at last to Thiery and shares with her son her secret hopes for his future. Her dreams come to ruin, though, when a betrayal reveals her plans and the Elves rise up against the mortals, trapping Tirren and his realm between two deadly enemies.