It is the year AD 560. Gerennius, or Geraint, the last remaining captain of King Arthur's triumphant stand against the Germanic invades of Britain, is faced with the problem of who should succeed him as king and pendragon of his southwestern kingdom of Dumnonia. Neither of his middle-aged sons is fitted for the purpose: Jestyn is a reclusive would-be hermit, and Selyf a boisterous, drunken bully. Geraint foresees only chaos and defeat after he dies. Then one day, from his fortress above the Vala River, he hears a laundry girl singing a sad song. In this novel, one of Cornwall's foremost...