Hardly a generation after King Arthur's court has had its downfall, Queen Isolde grieves for her slain husband, the High King Constantine, Arthur's heir. Only Isolde knows that Constantine was murdered, and that Marche, his murderer and the scheming frontrunner for the High King's throne, has betrayed his people to an alliance with the Saxon invaders. Isolde must fight for her very life as Marche plots to have her tried and executed for witchcraft in order to protect his secrets. One of her few allies is Trystan, a prisoner who is neither Saxon nor Briton, a young man with as lonely and troubled a past, and as strong a will to survive, as her own. Together they escape, and must find a way to prove what they know to be true - that Marche's deceptions will not only cost them their lives, but will jeopardize the future of British rule...