A flood ruins King Alle's kingdom. His crops are destroyed and he does not have the necessary grain to pay his yearly tribute to neighbouring war-lord, Aethelfrid. Instead he offers him his daughter, Acha, who, aged 16, must become a peace-weaver bride to the most brutal and feared warrior in the land.

But will she be accepted? Can she produce an heir? What will happen to the lines of inheritance in both her father's kingdom and her new husband's?

Acha finds herself alone, distrusted, and constantly in danger, but even she could not have imagined the deadly consequences her father's plan.

This is a story of resilience and survival, courage, love and loyalty in one of history's bloodiest eras, and the founding of the vast Anglo-Saxon kingdom that came to be known as Northumbria.