In the late seventeenth century two penniless young Frenchmen, René Sel and Charles Duquet, arrive in New France. Bound to a feudal lord, a "seigneur," for three years in exchange for land, they become wood-cutters -- barkskins. René suffers extraordinary hardship, oppressed by the forest he is charged with clearing. He is forced to marry a Mi'kmaw woman and their descendants live trapped between two inimical cultures. But Duquet, crafty and ruthless,...

When the cunning seafaring trader Gunnar, and his short-tempered, sword-wielding son, Harald Silkenhair, land in Trollsvik looking for a crew for a journey to Vinland, fifteen-year-old Peer, suspicious of their motives, reluctantly agrees to join them, mostly to watch over his friend Hilde who is eager to sail to the New World as companion to Gunnar's wife Astrid.