Shipwrecked on the northern shore of the Vilayet Sea, Conan finds himself stranded for the winter in the midst of two rival kingdoms.

Joining the force of one of the factions, he becomes a champion of Queen Alcuina in her opposition against the competing rulership of Odoac and Totila.

As a wild card in their local struggle, all parties seek to use him to tip the balance in their own favor.

Don D'Ammassa, writing of Roberts' Conan novels, noted that "[a]lthough Roberts did not recreate Howard's character exactly, making him more intellectual and less inclined to solve every problem by hitting it with a sword, his evocation of the barbaric setting is superior to that of most of the other writers contributing to the series.

"[2] Writing of some other Tor Conan novels, reviewer Ryan Harvey called Roberts "the most consistently successful of its stable of authors,"[3] and "the most consistently entertaining" of them, showing "deft ability with storytelling and action scenes, and a thankful tendency not to overplay his hand and try to ape Robert E. Howard's style.