England, 881 AD. Wessex stands on a knife's edge. The Saxon burh of Wōdenléah is clinging to a brittle peace in the years after the Battle of Edington. Osric, the widowed thegn, guards a forbidden love for Æfre, the burh's gifted healer, and one of the last pagans in a Christian land. When the ruthless Bishop Æthelwod sets out to seize power, Æfre becomes his target—her bond with Osric offers him the perfect leverage. Outside the walls, Jarl Torvald Ironsight, an exiled Viking chieftain, oversees one of the last Norse trading camps in Wessex. He watches Æfre from afar, drawn by a longing he refuses to name. As the bishop's schemes escalate, Torvald and Osric form an uneasy alliance to protect the woman they both cherish—and to keep a fragile peace from collapsing back into war.