In Lenfell's far past, its population was decimated by the Waste Wars, and the ruling class has emerged based on the ability to have healthy children.

This leads to a very matriarchal society in which many of the traditional gender roles are reversed, with women holding nominal power and men used as marriage tools with little autonomy.

Due to his beautiful singing voice, Col is set to be castrated in order to preserve it, an act from which he is rescued by Gorynel Desse, who then takes him to a cabin in the forest of Sheve Dark, where he serves as a nurse and student to Bard Falundir, the world's most famous Bard, who was crippled by the First Councillor Avira Anniyas when he wrote the Long Sun, a satire that would have exposed her as a Malerissi.

Once he comes of age and is deemed sufficiently trained, Gorynel Desse appears to wipe his memory and send him out into the world as an itinerant Minstrel.

Cailet stays in Ostinhold as a relative of the Ostins Dean Evans reviewed The Ruins of Ambrai for Arcane magazine in 1996, rating it a 5 out of 10 overall.