Paksenarrion, a simple sheepfarmer's daughter, yearns for a life of adventure and glory, such as was known to heroes in songs and story. At age seventeen she runs away from home to join a mercenary company and begins her epic life. Trained as a mercenary she distinguishes herself, but leaves the Dukes service to follow the path of Gird, the soldier's god. That path leads her on a holy quest for a lost elven prince that brings the gods' wrath down on her and rests her very limits.