The text starts with the memoirs of Philip of Amancia, Merlin’s pageboy. Merlin is now asleep or dead, Philip cannot be sure. He has merged with an oak tree and doesn’t move, or so at least the pageboy thinks. He remembers one stormy night many years before when Merlin, Lady Guinevere and the occupants of the house in Miranda were all at home and he saw through the window the arrival of a woman with black hair and white skin, who, despite the rain, didn’t seem to be wet. Merlin, sitting in front of the fire, was aware of her arrival, the dogs too seemed to want to welcome the visitor, and Merlin asked Philip to open the door. But the door opened by itself, and the woman, Morgana or Morgan le Fay, King Arthur’s supernatural elder sister, entered. Guinevere wasn’t pleased to see her – wasn’t it enough with all the trouble she had caused? But Merlin took the woman upstairs, where they talked for several hours.

In the second chapter, from the Chronicles of Avalon, Gorlois, the Duke of Cornwall, returns from battle in order to bed his wife, Lady Igrayne, but on the way he uncharacteristically ignores his little daughter, Morgana. When he embraces his wife outside the castle, Morgana discerns the shadow of a dragon. At first, she is confused, but then she becomes angry. Igrayne becomes pregnant. She is convinced that the child is her husband’s. The next day, the soldiers return with the body of Gorlois, saying he fell in battle the day before, but a thick, white mist prevented them from recovering the body until later that night. Igrayne says this cannot be true, she slept with her lord and master only the previous afternoon. Seven months later, once her pregnancy is well advanced, Uther Pendragon, her husband’s victor, comes to claim the castle of Tintagel, its lands and properties, but tells Igrayne that she may stay and asks her to marry him. Igrayne is offended, even more so when Uther tells her that the child in her womb is actually his. Merlin advises Igrayne to listen to him.

In the third chapter, taken from Merlin’s own conscience, Merlin remembers how, when Uther proceeded to relate not only details of Igrayne’s nakedness (these, however, were known to everybody since she used often to bathe or greet her husband naked), but also details of her lovemaking, Igrayne fainted and, when she came to, she gazed at Merlin, realizing that he was the cause of this deception, asking with her look why he should choose her womb in order to further his intentions. A few days later, Arthur was born. Igrayne agreed to marry Uther, but was now a shadow of her former self. It was Morgana who proceeded to care for her mother and half-brother, but without hiding her contempt for the figure of the wizard. In the Chronicles of Avalon, it will soon be Arthur’s seventh birthday and Merlin is planning to ask Uther for the boy, as was promised. The Druids’ Council on Avalon, under the leadership of Igrayne’s sister Vivian, decides it is time to act. They cannot leave Merlin’s actions unchallenged. In Philip of Amancia’s memoirs, Merlin is called to resolve a difficulty elsewhere and asks Philip to keep Morgana occupied while he is away and in particular to avoid the possibility of a confrontation between Morgana and Guinevere. Morgana and Philip have a highly entertaining day but, on their return, Philip is so hungry he leaves Morgana alone with Guinevere. Morgana makes fun of a tapestry Guinevere is weaving, showing the adulterous love between Tristan and Isolde, and provokes Guinevere’s anger.

In the Chronicles, Vivian appeals to Igrayne for her help, but Igrayne is already defeated. Vivian then tries to seduce Arthur with tales of Avalon and he expresses his wish to visit the island, but Merlin proceeds to tell Arthur that he will become a great king who will unite Britain and lead it to untold heights. Arthur swears his allegiance to Merlin, and it seems Vivian has lost the first round. She prepares to return to Avalon, but receives a visit from Merlin, who suggests they work together. Vivian rejects this advance from the man who was once her lover.

Merlin remembers how the Celts fought against the Roman invasion by taking to the hills and attacking them at night, how they learned some of the Druids’ magic arts, how a group of Druids withdrew to the island of Avalon to continue their quest for knowledge, and how Merlin set out to get to know the villages and peoples of Brittany in France, where he met an old man who suggested he visit Avalon, something Merlin had long wanted to do, but was afraid to. The old man gave him a necklace which, he said, would open the doors of Avalon to him. On his return to Cornwall, he set out for the island. There, because of his connection to the old man and the necklace he had been given, Merlin was welcomed without any further questions. He was lodged in a building with other children and started to receive lessons. He also established a firm friendship with a girl seven years younger than him, Vivian, with whom he shared games and knowledge. At one point, Vivian came to sleep in his bed and, for the next two years, they would sleep together, Vivian’s presence giving Merlin the calm he needed to sleep peacefully. The only difference between them was in their attitude towards knowledge, home-grown and distant legends, which Merlin would receive with great reverence, whereas Vivian would joke around, laugh at the legends sometimes (such as the idea from the Book of Genesis that a woman was formed from man’s rib and therefore somehow subservient to him) and want to share her knowledge with all those around her.