York is falling.

As Viking armies descend upon Northumbria, thirteen-year-old Edwin watches his city burn, his family disappear, and the England he knows collapse beneath the raven banners.

Taken as a slave, Edwin is carried into a foreign world of Danish farms, battles, markets and settlements. Years pass. He learns to survive, to work, and eventually to win his freedom.

But the Vikings do not leave.

They settle.

They raise families.

They reshape the land.

As Alfred of Wessex fights to preserve what remains of English rule, Edwin must confront a painful truth: England will survive—but it will never be the England he once knew.

From the ashes of York, a new England will rise.