A peasant girl.... Quiet and unassuming, nineteen-year-old Frideswide is the only unmarried maiden in the village. She spends her days caring for her bedridden grandmother and orphaned nephew. Frideswide can't bear to leave what's left of her family, even if it means losing the chance to create a new life and a new family for herself. A danger lurking.... Frideswide finds her life turned upside down when a mysterious new threat begins attacking the fiefdom. As the villagers try to solve the mystery of the unfamiliar predator, Frideswide encounters a strange man and little girl in the woods, bruised, bleeding, and in desperate need of help. Yet by saving the lives of these strangers, Frideswide has unwittingly changed her fate.... Frideswide learns that she alone can save the fiefdom from the otherworldly beasts that threaten to destroy them all. But can she find the strength hiding underneath her gentle spirit to protect and defend those she holds dear? Or will she allow them to be taken from her - forever?