Twenty years have passed since the adventures of La Belle Sauvage, and the then infant Lyra has now grown into a young woman. Seven years ago, she left the love of her life, Will Parry, on a bench in the Oxford Botanic Garden at the end of the highly successful Northern Lights trilogy (The Lord's Dark Materials).
Lyra's relationship with Pantalaimon takes an unknown path as they both become involved in the power games of secret and dangerous societies. Malcolm, the former boat boy, rescuer of a special child, is now a strong man, whose sense of duty also forces him to travel.
All three must leave Oxford to cross Europe into the heart of Asia in search of lost secrets: a city inhabited by daimons, the mystery of the heart of the desert, and the mystery of the elusive Dust.