Dunk and Egg traveled Dorne in search of the puppeteer girl Dunk had saved at Ashford, but never found her. A great plague called the Spring Sickness passed during their stay in Dorne. During a great drought, they left the hedges to enter regular service of a maester. The story begins in the Reach with Dunk sworn to Ser Eustace Osgrey of Standfast, an old and broken man whose family were once lords of Coldmoat. Dunk and Egg's adventure illuminates several aspects of the feudal system of Westeros. Also, a series of flashbacks narrated by Ser Eustace relate the events of the Blackfyre Rebellion and its conclusion at the Battle of the Redgrass Field of 196 AL.