Once a servant, now a shaman, Grusha has found a place for herself and her small son in the Tatar world. When her teacher dies just as an epidemic strikes the camp, Grusha accepts full responsibility for the horde's spiritual health. Indeed, she saves many children, including her own. Yet her success underlines a more fundamental dilemma. Her son is growing up without a father, a serious handicap for a sixteenth-century warrior, and Grusha believes she must do her best to provide one for him. Only when a suitable candidate takes an interest in her does Grusha realize that revisiting the past she remembers with such nostalgia will force her to pit her own needs against those of her son.