Pilel discovers that her parents are plotting to hand their beautiful young virgin daughter to an old elder of a tribe of higher status, and the young woman decides to escape and take her chances of survival crossing vast waste-land in the hope of reaching the river-land far to the south-east. She finds both love and tragedy, danger, physical abuse and deep emotional sufferings, passed down to her daughter. Her final revenge makes for a gripping.story of bravery, survival, human fortitude, adventure and romance.