The Shamer's Daughter, Dina, with the magical power of compelling people to admit their most secret shame, must save her family with her newly found father. But he is a Blackmaster, with the power to make people see and believe things that aren't true, so Dina must deal with having inherited this horrible power, while forging a relationship with a father she fears and mistrusts.
When the King and Queen are poisoned, brothers Per and Pål get arrested, suspected of being behind it. Younger brother Espen "Ash Lad" and Princess Kristin set out on a quest to find the mythical Soria Moria castle, which is said to be built of pure gold. In Soria Moria, there sits a well containing the Water of Life; the only thing that can cure Kristin's parents. But some wicked Danes are also on the hunt to find the castle. If Espen and Kristin fail, it will spell the end for the brothers, the kingdom - and perhaps the entire world.
In the aftermath of World War II, a British colonel and his wife are assigned to live in Hamburg during the post-war reconstruction, but tensions arise with the German widower who lives with them.
In 1939, Czech diplomat Jan Masaryk flees to the United States to escape his recent past: Germany has invaded Czechoslovakia and he is now a man with no nation; because, as the Czechoslovak ambassador in London, he failed to win the support of the British and could not avert the fall of his country and the outbreak of the World War II.