Enter the Old Kingdom, a world of dark secrets and dangerous magic. As a child, Sabriel was sent across the Wall to Ancelstierre to safety. Now eighteen years old, she receives a cryptic and desperate message from her father, the Abhorsen--the magical protector whose task it is to bind and send back to Death those who won't stay Dead. Fiercely determined to help her father, who is perilously trapped in Death, and save him from the sinister Free Magic...

Abhorsen-In-Waiting Lirael and Prince Sameth, a Wallmaker, must confront and bind the evil spirit Oranis before it can destroy all life.

After saving Nicholas Sayre from a Hrule, Lirael seeks help for him at her childhood home, the Clayr's Glacier, where she receives a warning from her long-dead mother that compels her to use her new powers to safeguard the Old Kingdom.