When Vikings raid her Irish village, sixteen-year-old Fiona's simple life of collecting plants for healing forever changes. Many of her family are killed or captured and she is taken away on a longship after slashing the throat of a Viking giant. What will the future hold for Fiona as a thrall (slave) who has mystical abilities she inherited from her mother?

Gunnar, a seventeen-year-old Danish warrior is Fiona's captor and becomes the centre of her world. It's his decision whether to sell her off for the price of a cow or marry Fiona-bringing her into a very different way of life, where she'll have to learn Danish and use her skills to survive.

Yet, hundreds of years later, Professor Jon Jorgenssen discovers a burial site of a young warrior in Haithabu, Germany, formerly the ancient Danish trading town of Hedeby, where Gunnar and Fiona's story unfolds. Jorgenssen and his team of archaeological students try to piece together the past.

This historical novel brings the Viking Age to life in all its glory and grit, vividly depicting the seagoing raiders' conquests, trading, and traditions. The author puts readers right in the action with these colourful and complicated characters, all interspersed with chapters set in present day.