continuing the struggle she began in into the dark lands erinnewly dubbed sarais forcefully put to sleep for 300 years while her lord finishes overtaking his enemiesand saras kinsmenafter conquering and slaughtering the last of the bright heart lines he awakens an amnesiaridden sara and assigns one of his slaves a fellow child of the blood to comfort her as saras memory slowly returns and her rage intensifies the servants of the dark heart and the dark heart itself become increasingly dangerous to both her and her caretaker in these eight tales munro evokes the devastating power of old love suddenly recollected she tells of vanished schoolgirls and indentured frontier brides and an eccentric recluse who in the course of one surpassingly odd dinner party inadvertently lands herself a wealthy suitor from exotic australia and munro shows us how one womans romantic tale of capture and escape in the high balkans may end up inspiring another woman who is fleeing a husband and lover in presentday canada