The first half of this book is told by various persons who are gathering at a harbor dive bar in the land of the seven rivers near a great lake. They re trying to find out what happend twenty years ago when the King tasked seven princes of the seven realms of the Aiya with the task to attain mastery in a chosen area within a year. It was the first task in the Contest. The winner would become the successor of the king and the husband of Princess Beanice who at the present time has become Queen Beanice.
The second half tells the story of the seven princes and their friends attempt to prevent the Dragon Emperor and his troops from invading the Sevenriversland.
The main character of the three books of the Contest is Feeo Flink. At the Contest he posed as a prince of the Daggerpeople. But he is just a young lad from the streets of the main city, Aiyana.
He loves Imaison the baker’s daughter. But he has to become intimate with the princess (as well). The Princess Beanice and Imasion gave birth to two daughters: Elistine and Chrisabeth.
The people at the divebar reconstruct the occurrences during the Contest, 20 years ago for each of the princes. There happen to be persons or beings present who know about a particular prince and are encouraged tell their story.
The telling culminates when Feeo and his two daughters, the princesses Elistine and Chrisabeth, tell what happend at the end of the first year of the Contest when dramatic occurrences cause the masteries that the princes have achieved turn into their fatal downfalls,
Meanwhile, however, the Dragon Emperor, ruler of the mighty realm of the Dragon people to the southeast of the Sevenriversland, starts an invasion.
So the second part of this book describes how the seven princes come together again and how they are able to defend the Sevenriversland from the Dragon Emperor, the Vulture Riders, and Queen Beanice herself.