Gabrielle Deschain, wife of the Dinh of Gilead, lies dead - struck down by her own son. Ensorceled by Maerlyn's Grapefruit, Roland was led to believe that it wasn't his mother behind him, but actually Rhea of the Coos... a witch-woman he encountered in Hambry. But the fact that she had betrayed her husband and country means little... he killed her, and so his father is forced to see him imprisoned.
When word comes that Marten has been seen riding out of Gilead with John Farson, and the minstrel recently killed by Cort Andrus, Steven Deschain gives pursuit with his two most trusted Gunslingers.
