Princess Gan is back home in Nadvaaryn after her epic adventure with the Brightstorm twins in the north. But her uncle is ill, so she must seek out a cure in the deserts outside the capital city. Her desperate hopes rest on finding a serpent in the sands, a creature everyone else believes to be an ancient myth. But it turns out that she's not the only one trying to get to it; dark forces are competing for power in the Wide, and as her adventure unfurls, Gan faces difficult choices in working out what she's willing to do - and whom she's willing to protect.