Akuzmo, a fourteen-year-old, embarks on a quest with three golden coins to find help and buy goods for Inlandia, his famine-stricken village. His people do not have enough food to eat, and their animals are sickly and dying from hunger and disease.

After walking many miles in the scorching sun, over the dry lands from his village, he is thirsty and hungry. Alone in a strange place, he believes that he is imaging unseen beings and is haunted by nightmares. In his search to find food, he finds himself in an enchanted sanctuary where he might be trapped forever. He is promised food and riches, but he does not know whom to trust.

He has decisions to make. Will he save himself by accepting the promises of strangers and abandon his family and his village? Or will he find another way to save his people?