Leaving the Valley of Horses that had become her home, Ayla embarks on a momentous journey. It will lead her to the Clan of the Mammoth Hunters - a people at first hostile and disturbingly different. With her is Jondalar, the handsome man she has nursed back to health and come to love. But as she gradually settles into this strange new life Ayla finds herself irresistibly drawn to the magnetic Ranec, master-carver of the Mamuti. Ultimately she is compelled to make a fateful choice between them...