Lady Svara should resign herself, it is the fate of a mother of the Shield to live mourning. But she is unable to do so. Only the rage and love of a mother can transcend the established order. Daughter of a general who has become infirm, wife of a warrior who died on the battlefield, mother of two sons carried away in battle and of a third disappeared, Svara is a woman of the Shield. Her mother's heart screams to her that her marmouse is alive, lost in the icy plains. Destroyed between grief and hope, she will gather around her an old cognar and two deserters to go in search of her.