House of Prension is the story of Aulic Prension, the fourteen-year-old younger son of Empress Landau. As Aulic faces his Maturity Rituals, he must cope with the resentments of his older brother Bodin, a stickler for decorum. Aulic takes a skeptical attitude to traditional strictures and the brothers? opposed personalities set them up for an inevitable rivalry. Aulic faces his greatest challenge when he ruins a fishing ritual, casting disgrace on himself. Angered, Bodin and his allies set Aulic an even greater challenge: to journey to the land of the hated Frissen and prove his diplomatic worthiness. Accompanied by two advisors and a young friend, Aulic faces a range of obstacles, including encounters with the nonsensically chanting Roundsongs, the beetle-like recalcitrant Jabbs and the perky fungus sprite Mempy Pinpin. His journey brings him to a face off with spiteful Emperor Ogo Prension where Aulic must use the lessons he's learned on his journey to survive.