The wizard Alder arrives on the island of Gont desperate and exhausted. Since his beloved wife died, she appears every night in his dreams, asking to be set free from the desolate land where the dead languish – and the other souls that reside there are growing dangerously restless, too. Elsewhere, dragons have unexpectedly moved into human territory, raiding the islands and leaving destruction and terror in their wake. Alder goes to the former Archmage Ged for help, but it may be his adopted daughter Tehanu who holds the key to these mysteries, for she is able to understand the dragons in a way that even Ged cannot. Can she unravel the knot that threatens the very existence of Earthsea? And how will it change her?