Eric Shepard has been imprisoned since birth in a body afflicted with Cerebral Palsey, unable to move or speak. He can, however, hear, see, and most importantly, think. Terry Shepard feels that having a brother who does nothing but moan softly is an inconvenience and treats him as such. During a routine hospital visit, Terry's recklessness crashes Eric in his wheelchair into another life where he picks himself up, bloodied from a fistfight in Eleventh Century England. Eric begins a journey, facing his own and his brother's life-threatening illnesses in one life and the invading Norman forces in the other as a housecarl in the service of the last Saxon King of England. As death approaches the boy and the warrior, Eric begins to see the purpose of his dual existence and the importance of the secret he carries in the survival of Good over Evil.