Norton is a wanderer, rejected by family and community, headed for the great city of Amaranth because he can think of nowhere else to go. He encounters a pretty slave boy struggling with a log too heavy to lift, and stops to help him. This earns him a welcome from the boy Kim's nomad clan and an invitation to a funeral feast, for the log is destined for the pyre of Kim's late master. Kim is given to Norton in an act of casual generosity, and a night of passion bonds the two more strongly than a collar and chains--but Norton's eyes are still on the far horizons, and leaving the clan will break his slave boy's heart. There seems to be no answer that can leave them both happy. And then raiders from another clan steal Kim away...