Narrowly escaping an assassination attempt with the assistance of the ghosts of the unburied, Shen Tai leaves the battleground on the western frontier to journey toward the capital, Xinan, protected by Wei Song, a female Kanlin warrior.

Knowing that he has already been the target of assassination, and fearing that word of the extraordinary gift of the Sardian horses will only make his death more attractive, Shen devises a strategy designed to keep himself alive in order to deliver the valuable Sardian horses to the Empire with the assistance of Bytsan sri Nespo, a Taguran officer with whom Shen develops a lifelong friendship.

She has been sent by Shen's former lover Spring Rain, a courtesan who has now become the favoured concubine of Wen Zhou, the new prime minister of Kitai, and is able to save his life against further assassination attempts.

Xu Bihai, the military governor in the western city of Chenyao, who covets the Sardian horses, unsuccessfully attempts to gain control of Shen through his attractive daughter.

Before reaching the capital, Shen is approached by the most powerful figures in Kitai, each trying to assess their prospects for acquiring control of the famed Sardian horses.

In his early military career, before the novel's opening, when Shen Tai had been on a previous military expedition beyond the Long Wall that protects the northern borders of Kitai, he had interrupted a magic rite being performed on Meshag, a kinsman of the Bogü ruler, that would have transformed him into a wolf spirit, but that had progressed far enough to create a link between Meshag and a wolf.

Li-Mei, who has known only a sheltered life of privilege, is forced to endure hardships and to learn to trust Meshag who is not only a barbarian, but who has intimidating links with the wolves that accompany them.

The upheavals set in motion by An Li's rebellion are reported to result in the deaths of up to forty million Kitans from war, disease and famine.

Here, reviewer Robert Wiersema described it as: "a sumptuous feast of storytelling, a beautifully written tale with a beating, breaking heart at its core that will have readers in tears by its final pages".

[2] Michael Dirda, in his review for The Washington Post, Beware Gift Horses, noted that Kay has leavened the story with "appealing minor characters" that enhance the richness of the plot.