After attempting to burn Mairenn Morgan at the stake for witchcraft, her cousin Sir Adrian Maddox, an evil warlock, pursues Mairenn to the new world of Colonial America. There he links with an Indian Shaman, granting the Shaman power and even immortality in exchange for his support in pursuing first Mairenn and then three more generations of women descending from Mairenn. Because Mairenn's blood holds the one threat to the wizard's ultimate victory. Author Kristina O'Donnelly spins a compelling story of magic, the attempts by both Indian and whites to create a sustainable Cherokee Nation, Colonial and early US history, and generations of women who must confront both the powers of evil and the difficulties of walking upon two different, violently opposing worlds.