Alongside others, Will is an orphan in Castle Redmont. At age 15, the orphans are expected to either become an apprentice of one of the masters at Redmont Fief or go off to work in the fields. After much stressing and suspicion of his own behalf, Will is chosen to become a Ranger. Rangers are the intelligence force and unofficial "spies" of Araluen. They have mastered the art of unseen and unheard movement, camouflage, knife throwing, knife fighting skills and archery. After being an apprentice for a few days, Will's teacher, a legendary Ranger named Halt, takes Will to see his horse Tug. With Tug, Will trains in the skills needed to pass his assessment at the annual Ranger meeting, called the Gathering. However, The Gathering is cut short with rumors of Morgarath's underlings, ugly creatures that look like a mix of ape and bear and walk upright, called Kalkara. According to the rumors, they have broken through the Three Step Pass, the only known access into Morgarath's lair in the Mountains of Rain and Night by direct route from Araluen. Will and Halt pursue the Kalkara, and eventually, Will saves his mentor, Sir Rodney, and Baron Arald by shooting a flaming arrow at the Kalkara.
In the second book, The Burning Bridge, a war is approaching and Will, Gilan, and Horace, Will's friend from the ward, are sent to Celtica to ask for reinforcements. However, when they arrive, they realize Wargals, bearlike monsters working for Morgarath, have kidnapped and slaughtered some of the population and forced the rest to flee. They find an Araluen girl named Evanlyn, who tells them what has happened. Gilan moves on ahead of Will and Horace to report to the King. Meanwhile, Will, Horace, and Evanlyn ride about a day behind Gilan and encounter Wargals. They follow them to the Fissure; a deep gorge thought to be impassable. The Celtica miners were all captured to complete a bridge across the Fissure, and a tunnel through the cliffs above up to Morgarath's lair. The bridge and tunnel would allow Morgarath's army to assault the King's army straight from behind and destroy the King's forces. Will, Horace and Evanlyn burn the bridge, but Evanlyn and Will are captured by Skandians, fierce warrior mercenaries who are working for Morgarath. Horace rides back with the horses and meets up with Gilan and a group of infantry trying to rescue Evanlyn who is, in truth, the Crown Princess Cassandra. Horace tells Gilan what happened and they ride back to the main army. They inform the king and his advisers of Morgarath's plan, and the king dispatches an auxiliary force, led by Halt, to stop a force of Skandians that has come up from the coast to outflank the king's army.
Halt succeeds in destroying the Skandian force and he returns to the king with a plan. Halt's troops dress in the unmistakable horned helmets of the dead Skandians and take their shields, leading Morgarath to believe that the Skandians are ready to outflank the king. This goads Morgarath into ordering his Wargals to charge into the open plain. However, just as the armies are about to collide, the king's army parts in the middle, and Halt's cavalry charge down the open center at the advancing Wargals. The Wargals, who are afraid only of horses, are demolished by Halt's cavalry, and by the king's horsemen who join in the assault. Seeing his army destroyed, Morgarath offers a flag of truce and prepares to challenge Halt to single combat to avenge his own defeat.
Halt nearly accepts Morgarath's challenge, but Horace challenges Morgarath instead. Because he is wildly inexperienced, while Morgarath is an accomplished warrior, Horace hopelessly outmatched by Morgarath. However, by diving under the hooves of Morgarath's steed, Horace manages to dismount him. Fighting of foot, Horace's sword is broken, but he uses a Ranger tactic, the "double knife defense", to stop Morgarath's next attack, and he kills Morgarath.
Will and Evanlyn are taken as slaves to Skandia, a frozen, pine forested neighboring country north-east across the Constant Sea at Araluen border. Will is forced to work outside in the bitter cold of the Yard. He quickly becomes addicted to warmweed, a drug that gives a person warmth, but builds up addiction and destroys the mind. The Skandian who captured Will and Evanlyn, Erak, sets up a plot to rid Will of his addiction and escape with Evanlyn. The two succeed in escaping, and take refuge in a small log cabin for winter. While there, Will overcomes his addiction with much help from Evanlyn. To rescue Will and Evanlyn, Horace and Halt also set off for Skandia by crossing into Gallica and making their way north along the coast.
While foraging for food, Evanlyn is captured by a Temujai warrior. The Temujai are a fierce, nomadic tribe of horse warriors from the east and masters of the recurve bow. Will tries to rescue her, but almost fails until Horace and Halt come along. Halt captures one Temujai alive and realizes the Temujai are back to try and take over the western world again. 20 years earlier, they almost succeeded until politics, and a serving of bad shellfish, got in the way. Halt agrees to help Skandia drive off the Temujai since Halt feels if the Temujai defeat the Skandians, they will attack Araluen next. The Skandians make use of Halt's knowledge of Temujai tactics, and Will takes charge of a force of archers to use in the upcoming battle against the Temujai.
During the battle, the Skandians surprise the Temujai with their archers, and they use the archers to destroy the Temujai tactical system. The Temujai manage to destroy the archers in a massive assault, but it is already too late, and the Temujai are forced to withdraw or risk having their previous conquests revolt. The Skandian ruler, the "Oberjarl", is killed in the battle, and Erak is elected to succeed him. Erak makes a pact with the Araluens, and agrees to stop the constant Skandian raids against the Araluen coast.
Erak's Ransom takes place in between books 4 and 5, a few months before Will receives his Silver Oakleaf. Skandian Oberjarl Erak Starfollower goes on one last raid to Arrida. However, he gets captured for a ransom while he is attempting to raid Al Shabah, a province in Arrida. Because Erak believes that he was betrayed by Toshak, a Skandian, the raiding party goes to Araluen for the ransom money. Princess Cassandra goes to Arrida to negotiate prices with Selethen, the Wakir (leader) of Al Shabah. Will, Gilan, Halt, Horace, and thirty of Erak's men go along for protection. They are also there to deliver the ransom. After the negotiation is over, Selethen reveals that Erak was being held in Mararoc, a fort in the desert, so they travel there. However, Erak is stolen by the Tualaghi, a merciless nomadic tribe of devil worshipers. The rescue party, with the help of the Bedullin, a better nomadic tribe, eventually kill the leader of the Tualaghi and free Erak. Princess Cassandra reasons that she no longer has to pay the ransom to the Arridi, because the Tualaghi held Erak when the Araluens saw him. Nevertheless, she decides to pay twenty thousand reels of silver each to the Bedullin and the Arridi. At the end of the book, Will is promoted to full Ranger and is awarded a Silver Oakleaf.
Note: The Gallic language is almost identical to the French language.