Thomas Covenant returns unwillingly to a Land ravaged by four thousand years of Lord Foul's pestilence. Under the evil Sunbane, the people of the Land submit to cruel sacrifices; the rulers of Revelstone are corrupt, the fields and forests laid waste; the healing Earth-power impotent.

Accompanied by a woman from his own world, Covenant begins a new quest to save the Land from the forces that have all but destroyed it.