Nerilka is left behind when her father, mother, and sisters attend the first gather of Lord Alessan of Ruatha. A plague strikes Ruatha and Nerilka's father breaks quarantine to come home. Word soon arrives of the deaths of her mother and sisters and Nerilka's father moves his mistress and her family in. Nerilka, not wishing to be subservient and degraded, and also ashamed of her father's actions, decides to leave her Hold, setting off on an adventure to a better life.