Following the hit sales of the other books in the Sword of Truth series, Tor ran 500,000 copies in Phantom's first printing.

[2] A continuation of the story in Chainfire, Phantom begins with Richard Rahl searching for his wife, Kahlan Amnell, whom only he remembers.

He discovers Zedd, Ann and Nathan in a room where Nicci is caught up in the grips of a powerful spell called a verification web.

In order to drive it off, Nicci places herself back into the spell form to draw upon the power between life and death.

Shota arrives at the Keep, bringing Jebra in an attempt to make Richard believe that he is wasting his time trying to find Kahlan when there is a whole world that needs to be saved from the Imperial Order.

Long ago, the First Wizard Barracus went to the Temple of the Winds to ensure that someone with the Subtractive side of the gift would be born again.

After such events, Richard comes to understand that he was right all along when he earlier stated that it is impossible to fight the hordes of Imperial Order forces head on in one great final battle.

Richard, Nicci and Cara travel in the Sliph to the main army in D'Hara and explain to the commanders what he has come to understand and his position.

Jagang once again proves that he is a master strategist by revealing that he had never left the Sisters of the Dark's minds and that by tricking them into thinking their fake bond with Richard was working, he learned much from their quest.

The commanding officer is impressed with his skill and takes Richard away as a captive to become a player of Ja'La dh Jin (Game of Life) on his division's team.

The Chainfire spell put in place over her destroys memories, not just overlap them or bury them; Kahlan will never remember any of them, even Richard, ever again.

The book ends with a few major cliffhangers: Richard is a captive in the Imperial Order's main camp, without his sword or his gift; Kahlan is a captive of Jagang with a Rada'han; the Boxes of Orden are in play by Nicci; there is a problem with Chainfire and with magic; that the Imperial Order is slowly making their way into the central stronghold of the D'Haran forces: the People's Palace, but also the D'Haran forces appear able to cut off the Imperial Order supply lines just as winter starts.