A wronged lover's pain, the will of a god, and the faithlessness of royal friends destroyed the legendary warrior, Sigfrid Sigmundson. And now duty demands that his grieving widow, Gudrun, wed again. For her union with Attila, the scourge who will be Khan of Khans, is necessary to the survival of Gudrun's noble tribe - and especially important for her two brothers: Gundohar, the tormented Burgund poet/kingand one-eyed Hagano, wielder of the weapon that slew his sister's beloved.

But it is the bitter blood of kinship that poses the greatest threat to a family already poisoned by hatred and guilt - as they await the final, fateful knotting of the twisted destiny they themselves have wound.