Waylander finds himself hunted by the Dark Brotherhood and the hounds of chaos after being betrayed by Kaem, and learns the only hope of saving himself and the Drenai lands is to retrieve the legendary Armor of Bronze from its hiding place in a shadow-haunted land.

An evil city, banished into limbo, starts to appear after a thousand years when the once powerful spells that held it there start to wane. Waylander, the assassin hero of some of Gemmell's earlier books, returns, but he has now reached middle age, and is more interested in peace than trouble.