Within the imaginary world of Erderelm, tucked away in a quiet part of the western continent, lie The Freelands, a rural backwater where very little ever seems to happen and nothing to excite the imagination of a fourteen year old boy. Such a one is Doran, a goatherd from the tranquil village of Oakvale which is quiet even by the standards of The Freeland. We first meet him daydreaming on a hillside outside his village, but, as we get to know the lad and his character, strange events draw him into a web of events that are both baffling and sinister. He is to discover in a stark and terrible way that the past still lives in the present.