"This is the story of Roderiga de Perolles; of how she rescued the bastard renegade Marco from death and was rescued herself by the squire Piers; of how she joined with her father, the penniless and independent Sir Landry, in search for witnesses that would bring Piers his rightful inheritance; and of the perils the three men brought into her life."

The story is set in 1192, the time of the Third Crusade. Roderiga is an independent, highspirited and competent girl of seventeen who accompanies her father on all his campaigns. She can manage a horse, a dagger and her father's household equally well. Marco is an outcast, but a man of courage and wit, and he makes himself Roderiga's protecting shadow after she saves him.