Kate, eighteen, and Mary, sixteen, must make some adult decisions about the course their lives should take when their loving but old-fashioned father dies suddenly, leaving them with their mother, who has been in a persistant vegetative state since an accident four years earlier.

Relates the adventures of Sir Gawain, the only undefeated knight in King Arthur's court, who eventually learns the value of friendship, courtliness, and courtesy after a challenge from the Green Knight.

Having moved to Annapolis, Maryland, with her medievalist parents, high school junior Ellie enrolls at Avalon High School where several students may or may not be reincarnations of King Arthur and his court.