The three surviving sons of Genghis Khan vie for the crown while striving to protect their father's empire and establish independent legacies, agendas marked by efforts to build a city in the wilderness, conquer Southern China and tame the steppes of Russia.

In the year 937, the new king of England, a grandson of Alfred the Great, readies himself to go to war in the north. His dream of a united kingdom of all England will stand or fall on one field--on the passage of a single day. At his side is the priest Dunstan of Glastonbury, full of ambition and wit (perhaps enough to damn his soul). His talents will take him from the villages of Wessex to the royal court, to the hills of Rome--from exile to exaltation....