The year is 796. Marauding Vikings carry off a three-year-old child from her castle stronghold on a far western island of Scotland, her mother, the delicate Countess Flannoch, in too much shock to save her.
In time, another daughter, Fhionha, is born to the countess and her husband, and is promised in marriage at the tender age of five to Stevhen Sinclair, the eight-year-old son of a Highland earl. Slated to be wed when she is eighteen and he twenty-one, for thirteen years the youngsters remain devoted childhood sweethearts.
But Countess Flannoch is tormented by a terrible secret, one that pushes her to the brink as her daughter’s wedding day approaches.
