This novel finds heroic liegeman Durand Col and his liege, Lord Lamoric, invited to the court of King Ragnal to reaffirm their homage oaths along with other noblemen. They get there late, only to find that the paranoid ruler has imprisoned the earlier arrivals and begun a bloody campaign to eradicate traitors. Fleeing, Col finds himself once again battling the opportunistic duke of Yrlac, but the greatest treason of all is perhaps Col's hopeless love for Lamoric's wife.
