Alan, suddenly adopted heir to the local noble, is obliged to marry an anorexic princess whose hobby of heresy extends to fake stigmata; royal courier Liath and more than slightly deranged royal bastard Sanglant find that their love stands in the way of the King's dynastic plans; the prattish monk Ivar runs away from heresy proceedings and hides among a princeling's boon companions and catamites. And while the nobility juggle marriages and churchmen bicker about doctrine, invaders amass on the borders and the world seems booked for cataclysms both political and metaphysical.