In a time of violent change, a young man, struck by lightning, is believed to be marked by the gods as a keeper of the Norse religion's greatest secret. Stolen from his family, he grows up among mercenary warriors; upon finally returning home, he finds that war has broken out against the rising tide of Christianity. To save the Norse faith and himself, he embarks upon a journey that takes him far beyond the boundaries of the known world, where he must confront not only his own gods, but the gods of a people yet more savage.