Two stories, two different times, but the thread of an ancient tale from the medieval Celtic Mabinogion cycle runs through the lives of twenty-first-century farmer's daughter Rhian and the mysterious Branwen, in this tale by Owen Sheers. Wounded in Italy, Matthew O'Connell is seeing out WWll in a secret government department spreading rumors and myths to the enemy. But when he is given the bizarre task of escorting a box containing six raven chicks from a remote hill farm in Wales to the Tower of London, he becomes part of a story over which he seems to have no control. Based on Branwen, daughter of Llyr from the Mabinogion.