Serollyn has always been exceptionally devoted to the Life-Lenders, supernatural beings who grant to each member of her tribe as that person comes of age a life-guide to protect and guide the person through the rest of his or her life. She is eager to undergo the ritual that will bring her life-guide and make her an adult in the eyes of the clan. With absolute faith she goes through the ritual that should bring her life-guide, an animal spirit that she alone can see and hear and communicate with. When no life-guide appears, she is devastated. How has she failed the Life Lenders, that they have denied her what they have granted to all her age-mates, as they have previously to all the adult members of the clan? What can she have done to earn the Life Lenders' enmity? She will learn that, far from failing them, she has been chosen to receive a marvelous gift and to take on a grave responsibility, one that will thrust her into great danger. But first she must confront and deal with a terrifying and terrible truth, a truth that will drive her from her home and from the clan and send her to the far side of the forest.