Gruffydd ap Cynan is missing, his army scattered. Twelve long years have passed since the king was taken prisoner and his people think him long dead. In the dirty shadows of Chester Castle, a beaten prisoner looks up from the squalor of the street. Dressed in rags, mocked and pelted with filth, he seems a broken man. Yet deep inside, the desire for freedom burns like the hottest furnace. Nesta is a princess in fetters of a different kind. After the death of her father, Tewdwr, she is taken against her will to London to attend the court of King William, son of the Conqueror. There she will find that court politics, and the attentions of princes and lords, are just as dangerous as the arrows and swords of the battlefield. The royal blood of Wales is scattered and weakened, but while it flows in the bloodline of Rhodri Mawr, hope remains—Hope that a broken kingdom can be reborn.