Ivel is a scavenger; with the dead, she deals better than with the living. When a chance takes the life of the army commander, Ivel decides to practice sorcery and resurrect him in order to protect the Kingdom from war. The principalities are ruled by a monster—the Dead Prince. They try to remove him from the throne: invaders from the steppe, preachers imposing a new faith, and even neighboring princes. An ill-considered spell raises the dead; the Great Forest takes its payment in living souls; battles flare up here and there, but no one is free to rewrite their own fate.