Facing destruction by a neutron star, Earth sends out seed ships into the cosmos to perpetuate the human race. Ship 94 arrives at its destination, an earth-like planet, where it completes its mission to produce at least three hundred human breeding pairs, along with animals that would be of use to them, and training resources to give the new colony a jump-start into the Iron Age. Five-hundred ninety-seven years later, Tor, a young man, and his mastiff dog, Benjy, returns from hunting to find his entire village massacred by invading soldiers of the Nurtiska Empire. With no other choice, he must flee. Thus begins an odyssey of revenge that turns into a search for a place of refuge for himself and the survivors of the Delta Clans. In his travels, he meets and takes as mate Koreen, a young woman of his own age. Will they find a refuge for themselves and the survivors of the Delta Clans where the Nurtiska Empire can never find them?