Forty-five hundred years ago clans of marauding horse nomads obliterated a peaceful, widespread, long-established and completely sustainable agricultural community called the Old Europeans. Conflict between these cultures forms the backdrop for Ahna's coming of age. The only daughter of a chief, she is destined to marry to create a tie between clans, but she is also born to the secret inner circle of the women's society. Thus her future demands fealty to the Goddess and responsibility for keeping the most important, most dangerous secrets of her people. At fourteen the statuesque golden blond beauty is determined to race her young mare. Marriage and her duty to her clan are barely on her horizon. Reality is about to come down on her like one of their double-walled tents collapsing in a high wind. Her actions bring her into conflict with an intriguing stranger, the clan's rigid mores, and the power-mad High Priest and his ruthless son, who is just mad for her. During one autumn she faces her own uncertainties and multiple threats to her life and becomes both a priceless resource and a deadly danger to her people, all without even the right to be heard. The author joins Jean Auel and others, exploring her fascination with people whose lives can only be guessed at based on sometimes scanty archeological data. There is evidence that they confronted many of the same challenges as we do today, including sustainability issues of resource use and conservation, and questions of social and economic inequality and inclusivity. The Guarded Circle is primarily a well-told story. Myriad cultural details and fully developed characters bring Ahna's adventures vividly to life. An earlier version of this book was published briefly in July 2011 as The Takers Ahna.