Tenth-century France is a land where the Forest People who worship pagan gods are disappearing. Christianity is arriving with a new God and new rulers. And brutal Viking Northmen are swarming from their warships to raze villages and loot the land.Elin, a woman of the Forest People, is schooled in the strange powers of her mother's people. When Owen, Bishop of Chantalon and a bare twenty-three years of age, rescues Elin from Viking slavery, he knows only that this lovely young woman is a temptation unlike any he has faced before. Yet there is little need for him to choose between his duty and desire, for destiny decrees that they be man and wife. Elin becomes Owen's lady; he becomes her soul, her stars, and her sun; and together they usher in a bold new era to Chantalon.But their idyll is shattered when revolt and betrayal foment, as Vikings attack Chantalon from the north, and Owen is captured. It falls to Elin to defend their town, rescue her husband, and preserve the fragile balance of harmony that their love has struck.