Cayda doesn't realize her life is one of confinement and oppression. Newly married and moved to the capital of Terra Krys, she finds her husband's family-compound frighteningly boundless. She struggles in her new role as wife, and is overwhelmed by the factional women's quarters of the family-compound, where a powerful mother-in-law and a higher ranking wife make Cayda's adjustment difficult. But Cayda's world-view is blown apart when her husband drags her on a sea voyage and she becomes the sole survivor of a shipwreck. Rescued by the very barbarians with whom her husband sought trade, Cayda is thrown into a land where she scarcely recognizes the cultural norms and gender-roles. As she fights to make a new life in this incomprehensible country, every belief she has ever held about who she is, or who she might become, is called into question.
