When Native wordmaster Iskifa Ahalopa discovers a shipwrecked Scotsman and his cargo, the king’s goat, washed up on the eastern coast of North America in 1399, he does what any language specialist would do. He sets out in search of someone who can understand the white man’s words. But the trio are quickly plunged into a web of of intrigue and danger, as they find themselves pitted against a rival tribal leader intent on dominating the continent.