For Adam Hardy and his small Berkshire community, hardship is all they've ever known. For almost a century after the coming of The Sisters, the survivors of rainswept England have huddled in their tiny communities, scavenging the ruins of the old world. Now, finally, the Long Autumn is coming to an end, and society of a kind is starting to rebuild.But for how long? A new tyrant, Frank Pendennis, has risen in the east, while rumours of something even worse are coming from the north.The struggle to inherit the world is just beginning...