Orphaned boy Pug is apprenticed to a powerful court magician named Kulgan in the world of Midkemia. Though ill at ease with the normal ways of wizardry, Pug soon earns his place as a squire after saving the life of one of the royals at court. But his courage will be tested still further when dark beings from another world open a rift in the fabric of spacetime to rekindle the age-old battle between the forces of Order and Chaos. Now the lives of Pug and his friend Tomas are thrown into danger and disarray. Only Pug's strange brand of magic might yet turn the tide, in the struggle to repel the invaders and restore peace to Midkemia.