Thomas Covenant is a young, best-selling author with a wife and an infant son, whose world is turned upside-down when he is diagnosed with leprosy and he loses the last two fingers on his right hand. After being hit by a car as he crosses the street in his small town he is transported to an alternate world known as the Land. There he is given a message to deliver from Lord Foul for the Council of Lords at Revelstone that Foul will destroy the Land. He is hailed by the Lords as a reincarnation of the legendary Berek Halfhand and honored as the bearer of white-gold (his wedding band), which can unleash wild magic. Believing he is suffering from a delusion, Convenant names himself the Unbeliever, distances himself from his role as the savior of the Land, and struggles with the reality of his experiences and mistakes in both worlds.