Once again a helpless prisoner of the sadistic Lord Fulgrim, Lady Corinna finds herself a naked pawn in his deadly plan to wrest control of Illeum from her father. Fulgrim's hatred for her is such that, regardless of her rank, she is slowly and cruelly being forced into submission as one of the human pony girls so popular among the wealthy merchants and nobles of the eastern lands, and even if her father should eventually yield to Fulgrim's demands, her fate already seems sealed. Only her beloved steward-master-lover, Lord Savatch, still recovering from a near fatal wound, fully realises the danger she is in and he, together with his former lover, the Yslandic warrior princess Alanna and her deadly young female cohort Jekka, must try to reach Corinna before Fulgrim's power becomes all encompassing.

The idyllic world of the former Princess Corinna and her beloved master, the mercenary Lord Savatch, is shattered when he is struck down by a mystery archer and lies near to death. Fearing the hand of the evil Lord Fulgrim, the malignant mastermind behind Corinna's abduction two years before, Savatch begs Corinna to flee and seek sanctuary with his most trusted friend, the amazon Yslander and warrior princess, Alanna. But Alanna and her band of female assassins are half a continent away, engaged on another quest for riches. Corinna's only hope is to find the trusted and fearsome Agana. But Agana is already dead, evilly slain by Fulgrim, and Corinna once again finds herself a prisoner. Harnessed as a ponygirl, whipped, and driven by fear and pain, she is reduced to a life of toil in a land where even the luckiest women are mere sexual toys in the hands of their masters.