Seft, a talented flint miner, walks the Great Plain in the high summer heat, to witness the rituals that signal the start of a new year. He is there to trade his stone at the Midsummer Fair, and to find Neen, a girl he loves. Her family lives in prosperity and offer Seft an escape from his brutish father.Joia, Neens sister, is a priestess with a vision and an ability to lead. As a child, she watches the Midsummer ceremony, and dreams of new monument, raised from the biggest stones in the world. But trouble is brewing among the hills...As drought ravages the earth, mistrust grows between the herders, farmers and woodlandersand an act of violence leads to open warfare . . .