I realized trying to explain this book to John that it was too hard to do a quick synopsis. I suppose I can say that Tomasu is a young man among the Hidden, a group that is persecuted by the area Lord. He escapes the destruction of his village and family with the help of a man who turns out to be a Lord in the Otori clan, but their meeting may have been less by chance than Tomasu first believes. Shigeru knows more about Tomasu's past than he does himself and plans to adopt him into the Otori clan.

This book picked up pretty quickly for me from the beginning, and I was eager to follow it to the ending. The descriptions were pretty. I'll probably pick up the next in the series if I run across it.