Twelve brave young men set out, led by the  indomitable Blue Jay, seeking a better wintering land to  the mysterious south. But the quest becomes an  obsession that plunges the men--and the beautiful,  enigmatic woman who joins them--into a lush, deadly  forest inhabited by great spotted cats and  "thunder lizards," against a man-eating people  near the sea, and to a highland realm where human  sacrifices are performed on a man-made mountain.  To the young holy man Walks in the Sun, the  journey is a test of his vision and his skill at casting  the bones. For as he and his comrades face death,  disease, and loss, they fight for survival--and a  return to the People.