Fifteen-year-old Elindra has dreams of becoming a sorceress, and has been training as apprentice to the sorceress Myrala. But Myrala has unwholesome appetites, and abuses her authority to take sexual advantage of her young ward. Elindra endures it as long as she can, but one day Myrala goes too far. In a panic, Elindra casts a spell that slays her, but not before the woman can curse Elindra that she'll die on the summer solstice.
With only seventeen days of spring left, Elindra sets out on a quest to find a way to neutralize the curse. The wilds of Nubilia are dangerous and the task seems hopeless, until she encounters the most unlikely of allies...