A legacy from a dying stranger sends fifteen-year-old journeyman wizard Randal on a dangerous journey to find the rightful place of an artifact of power, which tempts him to succumb to its tainted magic.
When thirteen-year-old Dan journeys to the Dead Lands to rescue the village healer kidnapped by the grooglemen, he discovers strange things about himself and the world.
Determined to become a wizard, twelve-year-old Randal is delighted to be accepted into the famed School of Wizardry, but his apprenticeship is marred when he realizes that one of the master wizards is using evil spells to destroy the school and gain supreme power.
The further adventures of Roland, a journeyman wizard, and his two companions, the knight-errant Walter and the minstrel Lys, as they journey into Elfland to try and bring out the High King's daughter.