Brahm, captain of the Order of the Shield, loses his wife while she gives birth to her son. Tiss, his daughter, takes care of his best of their home, but she fails to protect her little brother from a band of Ogres. The child is seriously wounded, he will be a boisterard for the rest of his life, a cripple incapable of holding the rank. All the hopes that Brahm had placed in his son are destroyed, he will never be the great cognar that he had hoped. Despite his father's opposition, Tiss decides to take the place of his little brother and learn the profession of arms...