A timid young woman is asked to leave her safe life and travel the planet called Brezlun with the last avatar of the starship that brought them there. Along the way she will find courage and a purpose, friends and love, and danger.

Four thousand years ago a starship dropped off its cargo of humans after a journey so long that they forgot where they came from. Along the way the people developed strange habits and splintered into four very different cultures, which scattered on arrival. Each group was given two avatars called Mediators, which allowed them to communicate with the ship still in orbit, and give them the knowledge they needed to make a fresh start on their new world.

One by one the Mediators vanished and became legend, lost to accident or deliberately destroyed, and now the last one is failing. It's determined to reestablish communication with the ship, but to do that it needs the help of Miako Seeker, who once dreamed of seeing the world but has settled for a job as a census clerk.

Yanking Miako out of her comfortable life, the Mediator leads her on a quest across the entire world. First to the heart of the ritual-bound farming country where she grew up; then to the mountain fortress of the wizards who hoard their treasures while planning ahead for a thousand years; then to the continent where only women live, ruled by an enigmatic queen; and finally to the horsemen who wage bloody battles to perfect themselves, with swords forged by their wives.

As Miako collects friends and allies, she grows into the role the Mediator has forced her to assume. She will need all of her new-found strength and determination, all of her musical genius, and all of her friends' help, when Brezlun's future is threatened by fanatical assassins who believe that the Mediator's quest is blasphemy?and they're willing to kill everyone involved to stop them from succeeding.