Once a servant, now a shaman, Grusha has found a place for herself and her small son in the Tatar world. When her teacher dies just as an epidemic strikes the camp, Grusha accepts full responsibility for the horde's spiritual health. Indeed, she saves many children, including her own. Yet her success underlines a more fundamental dilemma. Her son is growing up without a father, a serious handicap for a sixteenth-century warrior, and Grusha believes...