Past, present, and a possible future blur together in this story about Erin, an obscure copyist whose home lies within the vaguely-defined boundaries of a great valley. The last surviving descendant of a line of rulers called primi who once held sway over the valley, he finds himself at the center of a regional power struggle between the mountaineers of the western hills and the priests of the House of Alexander. When the priests see Erin as a potential threat to their power and move to eliminate him, the mountaineers respond by kidnapping him to save his life. As a refugee in the mountains, he is forced to adjust to existence in a community held together by the loosest possible ties of self-interest while coping with the realization of what the priests have done to him and every other one of their subjects. At the same time, he must decide for himself whether he is fully human or not, and if so, what his rights and obligations are as a man and a member of no group other than the human race.