Cynwulf, shunned for being part Viking and part Saxon, lives beneath a beached Viking ship on the outskirts of the Anglo-Saxon community surrounding Tildric Hall. Life is hard enough for him as a half-breed misfit–until the fateful day his battleaxe is found in a dead man’s skull. Charged with murder and facing the sword of Anglo-Saxon justice, Cynwulf’s longings and dreams now hang in the balance, and so does his life.