It is the duty of the lifesworn to devote their lives to protecting, serving, and guiding those to whom they're sworn. The best of them serve one master for their entire lives. Though Omar has only ever wanted to be listed amongst those greats, he instead loses his first master to illness, his second to age, and is rejected by subsequent potentials.

When a foreign woman, Lady Astira, arrives unexpectedly in Morentia in the dead of night, she brings dire news: her betrothed, Lord Symaia, has been kidnapped. Without him and the soldiers who follow him, Princess Shanna will be missing a significant part of her army in the coming war against her stepfather.

Symaia is also an old friend of Omar's, and so he is assigned the task of finding, rescuing, and protecting Symaia. If Omar fails in his mission, lives and kingdoms will be lost. If he succeeds, he must watch as the man he's always loved marries the woman he's quickly falling in love with.