As Ayla studies to become a spiritual leader to Jondalar's people, the Zelandonii, she faces many challenges, including being separated from Jondalar and their young daughter, Jonayla, and experiences a revelation.

In this third of the the Earth's children novels, Ayla and Jondalar meet the Manutoi, the mammoth hunters, and when she is drawn to another man Jondalar becomes jealous. It is not until the great mammoth hunt, when Ayla's life is in danger, that a fateful decision is made.

After their epic journey across Europe, Ayla and Jondalar have reached his home, the Ninth Cave of the Zelandonii, the old stone age settlement in the region known today as southwest France. Jondalar's family greet him warmly, but they are initially wary of the beautiful young woman he has brought back, with her strange accent and her tame wolf and horses.

Ayla and Jondalar set out on horseback across the windswept grasslands of Ice Age Europe. To the hunter gatherers of their world - who have never seen tame animals - Ayla and Jondalar appear enigmatic and frightening.

When a deadly illness begins to afflict the clans, twelve-year-old Torak, with help from Renn and Wolf, embarks on a journey to find a cure.

Maroo, a girl of the late Ice Age, must take charge after her father is killed, and lead her little brother, mother, and aged grandmother to the safety of the winter camp before the first blizzards strike.

Four thousand years ago, a young boy is thrust into manhood long before he is ready after his heroic brother is killed and his become the leader of America's first city.