Eleven hundred years after The Time of Fire..From stonewalled cities the Pelbar ruled what had been the northern Mississippi vallley. Of all the Pelbar strongholds, Threerivers was the most conservative. And of all Threerivers' citizens, Udge, her ruler, was the most hidebound. In Threerivers there was never any doubt that women should rule and men should serve..until two boys, twins, started the events that landed one in jail and put the other to flight through a dangerous land peopled by hostile tribes.