Scholar Phelan Cle of the Bardic School at Caerau chooses as his graduate thesis the subject of the perhaps mythical Bone Plain, where all poetry is said to have originated, and the tale of the wandering bard Nairn.

Meanwhile, archaeologist Jonah Cle, Phelan's alcoholic father, pursues his own investigations, urged on by his dedicated disciple Princess Beatrice, the king's youngest daughter.

At the standing stones near the school is unearthed a strange artifact, a disk marked with ancient runes that may prove key to the mysteries of Bone Plain.

Alternating chapters recount the activities of the Cles and the princess and the legend of Nairn, and gradually the present and past are revealed to mirror each other and ultimately fuse.

"[2] Jackie Cassada in Library Journal also gives the book a starred review, decreeing it a "masterfully told tale by an author sensitive to nuance and detail [that] will please McKillip's many fans," writing that her "finely tuned feel for the mythic aspects of stories informs her fantasies with the underpinnings of archetypal power, yet her characters remain endearingly human, with recognizable flaws and strengths.