Each year twenty men and twenty women brave death and insanity in order to reach the Summit, a place where humans have the opportunity to learn directly from the gods. Poliar Crookleg has waited his whole life to go on the Pilgrimage to Kosa Saag. With his childhood friend Traiben, he is determined to be one of the few who return sane and filled with knowledge. But what the gods have to say may shatter the very fabric of the people’s beliefs.