In Northern Genabackis, just before the events recounted in Gardens of the Moon, a raiding party of tribal warriors descends from the mountains into the southern flat lands.

Their intention is to wreak havoc among the despised lowlanders but for one amongst their number, it is the beginning of an extraordinary destiny.

His name is Karsa Orlong.

Some years later, it is the aftermath of the Chain of Dogs.

Coltaine, revered commander of the Malazan 7th Army, is dead. And now Tavore, sister of Ganoes Paran and Adjunct to the Empress, recently arrived at the last remaining Malazan stronghold of the Seven Cities, must take charge. Untested and new to command, she must hone a small army of twelve thousand soldiers, mostly raw recruits, into a viable fighting force and lead them against the masses of Sha'ik's Whirlwind. Her only hope of success rests with the few remaining survivors from Coltaine's legendary march.

In distant Raraku, in the heart of the Holy Desert, the seer Sha'ik waits with her increasingly restless rebel army.

And waiting is never easy, especially when a disparate collection of warlords - tribal chiefs, High Mages, a renegade Malazan Fist and his sorceror - is locked in a vicious power struggle that threatens to tear the rebellion apart from within. And Sha'ik herself suffers, haunted by the private knowledge of the one she knows is her nemesis . . .