Ren Daiyan was still just a boy when he took the lives of seven men while guarding animperial magistrate of Kitai. That moment on a lonely road changed his life in entirelyunexpected ways, sending him into the forests of Kitai among the outlaws. From therehe emerges years laterand his life changes again, dramatically, as he moves toward thecourt and the emperor while war approaches Kitai from the north. Lin Shan is the daughter of a scholar, his beloved only child. Educated by him inways young women never are, gifted as a songwriter and calligrapher, she finds herselfliving a life suspended between two worlds. Her intelligence captivates an emperorand alienates women at court. But when her father's life is endangered by the savagepolitics of the day, Shan must act in ways no woman ever has. In an empire divided by bitter factions circling an exquisitely cultured emperor wholoves his gardens and his art far more than the burdens of governing, dramatic eventson the northern steppe alter the balance of power in the world, leading to events noone could have foretold, under the river of stars.
