Maeve, daughter of Lord Sean of Sevenwaters, was badly burned as a child and carries the legacy of that fire in her crippled hands. After ten years she's returning home, a courageous, forthright woman. But while her body's scars have healed, her spirit remains fragile, fearing the shadows of her past.

Sevenwaters is in turmoil. The fey prince Mac Dara is desperate to see his only son, married to Maeve's sister, return to the Otherworld. To force Lord Sean's hand, Mac Dara has caused a party of innocent travelers on the Sevenwaters border to vanish-only to allow their murdered bodies to be found one by one.

When Maeve finds a body in a remote part of the woods, she and her brother, Finbar, embark on a journey that could bring about the end of Mac Dara's reign-or lead to a hideous death. If she is successful, Maeve may open the door to a future she has not dared to believe possible....