The events revolve around the discovery, capture and military and symbolic uses made of an incredibly large bear, called "Lord Shardik" by those who subscribe to a set of religious beliefs in the novel.

Finally reaching Zeray, a lawless town beyond the borders of civilisation, he re-encounters the Tuginda and Melathys, a former priestess of Shardik, and the two fall in love.

Genshed is on the point of killing Kelderek despite knowing his prisoner's value as the former ruler of Bekla, when the dying Shardik erupts from the woods.

Shardik first appears in the opening chapters, when a forest fire forces him out of the wild lands north of the River Telthearna onto the island of Ortelga.

Unlike the animals in Adams' earlier book Watership Down, Shardik does not speak or appear to have conscious thought, and apart from the opening sequence the story is not told from his perspective.

Kelderek (also called Crendrik by non-Ortelgans) – The main protagonist, an Ortelgan hunter and later priest-king of the Beklan empire, and finally governor of Zeray.

The Tuginda – High priestess of Ortelga, she opposes the capture of Shardik for the purposes of aiding the conquest of Bekla, and so is made a prisoner on the island of Quiso by Ta-Komininion (an act to which Kelderek is grudgingly complicit).

Ta-Kominion – A charismatic young baron who usurps power from Bel-ka-Trazet and directs the campaign to take Bekla for the Ortelgans in its early stages and orders the Tuginda to be taken in chains when she disagrees with using Shardik.

The subdivisions are Bekla (the capital), Belishba, Chalcon, Gelt, Lapan, Kabin of the Waters, Ortelga, Paltesh, Tonilda, Ur-tah, Yelda, and Sarkid of the Sheaves.