A small ship is wrecked during a perilous crossing in the Middle Sea. A baby is born as the ship sinks in the storm and is sealed in a barrel by its parents, who are then drowned. The child is rescued by the wreckers who lured the ship to its doom and a chain of events whose roots reach back down the centuries is set in motion... The Dalnin are a dispossessed and wandering tribe living on the margins of society, persecuted and reviled by most. They yearn for the prophesied return of their royal bloodline who will restore them to their true heritage. In a small fishing village lives an orphan youth, Jarla. His birth and true parentage are unknown and he grows up unhappy, estranged from the world and the people around him. He befriends a mysterious stranger from the wild and sets off on a journey of discovery that will lead him through danger and hardship to a true understanding of who he really is and what he must do to fulfil his destiny. The challenges he overcomes and the resources he finds inside himself and in the world around him mould him into the person he was born to be. Most of all he finds the friendship and connection that he has always yearned for but never known.