Driven ashore on the coast of Ireland, their longships nearly wrecked by the gods who seem unwilling to let them leave, Thorgrim Night Wolf and his band of Northmen once again face a fight for their survival. Helpless without their ships, they must find some refuge in that hostile country and begin the laborious work of making the vessels seaworthy again. But for all the shipbuilding skills that Thorgrim and the others possess, there is one thing they cannot do-weave cloth to replace the sails shredded in the gale that drove them ashore. For that they must strike a bargain with the Irish, the very people who most want them dead. But no such bargain can last for long, and soon betrayal and deceit have the Northmen trapped by an enemy determined to crush them once and for all.