Fate brought together the winged centaur Chex, the ogre Ehsa and the hoarder Procopius from the Valley of Procopius. Each of them has their own problem: Ekhs cannot understand why he was born into the world, and does not know how to get rid of the annoying demoness Metria; Chex is grieving because in all of Xanth not a single winged centaur can be found except herself; and Procopius suffers because the banks of the river on which his people have long lived have been captured by demons, and therefore the Lyublya River was even renamed Ubyureka. The three of them go to the Good Wizard Humphrey - and learn that they have to save Xanth from a misfortune, the worst of which has not been seen for a long time.