Though Ursa is a smith and not a soldier, in a religious fervor he takes the Cross, swearing an oath to liberate the Holy Land. He soon finds that the Crusade is not what he'd expected. For the most part it is an unending march over rough landscape under a merciless sun, often without food or water. Because he belongs to no Lord, he's on his own, just following along. He collects some friends around him to share the hardship. He survives bloody battles, endures through long sieges at Antioch and Jerusalem, always suffering. To his disappointment, he finds little faith in the army, all the more a surfeit of cruelty and greed. The core of the story is the friends he makes and how they help each other through dire circumstances. They are the foil for4 Ursa to find himself. Soon after the fall of Jerusalem, his oath fulfilled, he returns to Italy, looking for a place of safety and peace to raise a family.