After three knights and three failed tries, Sir Rowan Wolf sets of into the kingdom of the West to learn two things: why King Maas is in a hurry to marry into the royal family of the West; and who keeps drugging his men and sending them back down the river. Noel, dressed in his late father's red cloak, is asked by the king to keep him in hiding and perform one task, a task that Noel wishes he could refuse. But doing so would condemn his kingdom to King Maas's vicious hand. No choice but to prepare a potion that will kill the king of the West, Noel hunts for ingredients in the deep, dark woods. Woods Noel thinks he knows like the back of his hand . . . until he meets a Wolf that leads him astray.