It is a time of Old gods, of new beliefs and new restrictions on living. Sherewode stretches nearly from coast to coast, from the Humber in the North, to Buckingham in the South; from Willenhall in the West to Crowland, East of Ermine Street, with tendrils running all the way to Kernow, Scotland and Wales. Everywhere Saxons and the old Ænglish are being crushed under the cruel bootheel of the Normans. Thousands of years of history is being stolen, plundered, sold off. Justice and belief are under attack, being rewritten by the Normans – belief in the Christ of the East is in ascendancy while everywhere belief in the Forest gods such as Cernunnos is failing, being discredited, being outlawed. And when Cernunnos himself is slaughtered by Norse gods, the people of Sherewode find themselves all alone.

Amaury is a young man, a faithful believer in the Christ of the East, the new religion that is sweeping Sherewode. When he comes out to his friend, Emmerich, that he is in love with him, things do not go as well as he'd hoped. In fear, he runs to the only person he feels will support him - a brother of the Christ of the East, for surely anything will be better, will be safer, than running into the dark forest in the middle of the night, where demons, outlaws and wolves' heads are said to lurk....