Arthor has achieved the impossible, pulling the sword Excalibur from the stone. With his royal lineage revealed to him by Merlin, he is now king of all Britain. But the tribal chieftains are not willing to accept a beardless fifteen-year-old lad as their ruler, even if his ferocity and courage in battle are well known. Especially when he has rejected the pagan gods of the Celts and Saxons and embraced Christ, the foreign, nailed god whose message of love and mercy is at odds with bloodthirsty battles and the celebration of heroes. Arthor must take his frail power, his perilous order of warriors, and win the pledges of loyalty from his subjects. His courage is not in question. But his soul is wracked with a secret of such horror he can barely confess it. His sister Morgeu carries within her their incest child, conceived through trickery, the instrument of her revenge upon Arthor and his kingship.