Gabrial is a young dragon, anxious to both prove himself and also find his father who years ago was one of a Wearle of dragons who set out from their home planet and were never heard from again--and now he is part of a new Wearle that has come to Erth, but one of the other dragons has dark plans, and when war erupts between dragons and humans, Gabrial finds that his only ally is an unusual human boy called Ren.

The coming of the dragons has upset the balance on Erth, and now other creatures, the wild Gibbus, and the Wyvern, are being drawn into the conflict between dragons and humans; while the dragons Gabrial and Grendel guard the young dragonets in their care, and the human boy, Ren, struggles to control his new powers, the world seems to be coming apart around them--and the firebirds are manipulating the threads of destiny.