Tik has lived her 12 years in awe of her grandfather Gortan, who demands loyalty to kin, land, and the 'family beyond the wall' - the rebels who were branded and exiled into the wilderness 135 years before. The arrival of a branded man at the Westgate, the first to return to the kingdom since the rebellion, leads her to discover terrible secrets about her family and question her loyalties. Meanwhile Lebasi is forced to guide the branded man into Xessus to give a warning to the magistrate - Lebasi's father Xela - or the captain of the Westwall Guard. The Westwall Guard has returned to Xela's district under a new captain to deal with the uprising led by Lebasi's friend Perra, and Lebasi knows that resistance will lead to the end of Riadsala's Mercy and the destruction of Xessus. The branded man has brought news of an army crossing the wilderness, and Lebasi has to join the Guard to help keep out an even more brutal enemy. But is this the real nature of 'the warning' the man carries? As Tik fights to protect the one thing to which she can be truly loyal - her land - Lebasi realises that he has joined an army on its way to fight an unequal battle, and his courage is tested to breaking point.