Kahlan is nursed back to health after a brutal beating she received at the hands of Anderith's messengers at the end of the last book, Soul of the Fire.
Shortly afterward, Prelate Ann and the reformed Sister of the Dark Alessandra visit the camp, looking for Richard, claiming his need for the people to prove their worth is pointless and that the prophecy dictates his required actions.
This enrages Kahlan, and she threatens to murder Alessandra unless Ann destroys her journey book, which will prevent her from coordinating with Verna and the D'haran army.
Richard also meets Brother Narev, a sorcerer who is constructing a spellform for the Imperial Palace that will effectively make Emperor Jagang immortal.
Richard is approached to lead a peaceful protest against the Order but he refuses and begs his friends to stay away, knowing it will be a wholesale slaughter.
Richard, as punishment for his "civil infraction," is commanded to erect a disgusting sculpture glorifying human suffering for the center of the New Palace.
Secretly, Richard works tirelessly to create his own statue of a noble man and woman out of a block of flawed marble he purchases from a local quarryman.
The epilogue ends with Kahlan shyly staring at a massive statue of Spirit, a model Richard had carved with her face, being erected in the center of the newly free Altur'Rang Don D'Ammassa of the Science Fiction Chronicle wrote that Goodkind has "developed some of the most thoroughly realized characters in the genre.
"[3] Andrea Watson of the Publishers Weekly opined that while the novel is a "good read", Goodkind "should start to wind up his plotlines and move on to his next project.