Eighteen-year-old orphan Terciel is learning necromancy - to lay the Dead to rest, rather to raise them. He is the Abhorsen-in-Waiting, the latest in a long line whose task it is to make sure the Dead do not return to Life. Across the Wall in Ancelstierre, where magic does not usually work, Elinor, nineteen, lives a secluded life.
Her mother is a tyrant, feared by all despite her impending death ... Elinor does not know she is deeply connected to the Old Kingdom, until a plot by an ancient enemy of the Abhorsens brings Terciel to Ancelstierre. In a single day of fire, death and loss, Elinor finds herself on a path which will take her into the Old Kingdom, into Terciel's life, and embroil her in the struggle of the Abhorsens against the Dead who will not stay dead.
