In the medieval kingdom of Goredd, women are expected to be ladies, men are their protectors, and dragons can be whomever they choose. Tess is none of those things. Tess is...different. She speaks out of turn, has wild ideas, and can't seem to keep away from trouble. Then Tess goes too far. What she's done is so disgraceful she can't even allow herself to think of it. Unfortunately, the past cannot be ignored. So Tess's family decides that the only path for her is a nunnery.

But on the day she is to join the nuns, Tess chooses a different path for herself. She cuts her hair, pulls on her boots, and sets out on a journey. She's not running away; she's running toward something. What that something is, she doesn't know. Tess just sees the open road as a map to somewhere else--a life where she might belong.

In a return to the spellbinding world of the Southlands created in the award-winning, New York Times bestselling novel Seraphina, Rachel Hartman explores self-reliance and redemption in this wholly original fantasy.

This description comes from the publisher. Tess of the Road takes place in the world first described in Seraphina.