At the close of the Voyage trilogy, Grianne Ohmsford had been tasked by the dying Walker Boh to continue his work and build a new Druid Council. Well, twenty years have passed and a new Druid Council is working towards the advancement of the Four Lands. But in a struggle for power someone has tricked the Ard Rhys, Grianne and sent her into the Forbidding, land of the Jarka Ruus (or the banished ones in Elven). Not knowing now what her fate is. Meanwhile in the Four Lands, the Druid Council has fallen into the the hands of the druid Shadea a'Ru. She is hellbent on taking control and using her Federation ties to take control of the Four Lands themselves. Pen Ohmsford is home alone waiting for his parents Bek Ohmsford and Rue Meridian to return from the Eastland. Tagwen, Grianne's most trusted aide comes looking for Bek but only find young Pen. And on a flight to get away from the Druids after Tagwen, he meets up with the King of the Silver River who tells him that he is the only person who can save his Aunt. He must find the tree called the Tanquil and fashion a talisman out of one of its branches. Now young Pen is thrust onto a journey that seems impossible with only a dwarf, a hotheaded princess, a fallen druid and only his own ingenuity to save him.
