Placing every worldly possession on the line to challenge in the tournament at Ashford meadow, Dunk does all he can to make a name for himself. With a runaway named 'Egg' for a squire, and a tree for a pavilion, Dunk prepares for battle. But one more seemingly impossible challenge besets him before he may enter the lists... Can he actually prove his knighthood?

With a runaway for a squire, his dead master's sword, and a pretty girl in his thoughts, Dunk is ready to take on the Kingdom's best knights in the Ashford tournament as "Ser Duncan the Tall". Gambling everything he owns for just one chance to prove himself on the battlefield, Dunk faces failure before he gets a chance to try when no one will vouch for his knighthood. Meanwhile, the coming of the tournament challenges not only his determination to join the lists, but also his very understanding of what it means to be a knight.

As dusk descends over the Ashford tournament, Dunk and his runaway squire, Egg, recover from the horror they just witnessed and prepare for Dunk's upcoming combat in the tournament. But Dunk's first combat takes an unexpected, and potentially deadly, form when he chooses to defend a helpless puppeteer, Tanselle (a girl Dunk has more than a passing interest in) from the brutal hand of Aerion, a prince of the blood of the dragon. When the dust settles, lies are revealed, lives are destroyed, true natures are exposed, and Dunk finds himself with an opponent he cannot hope to defeat, the law of the realm!

In this prequel story to A Song of Ice and Fire, night falls over the life on one noble knight and brings the dawn of his squire's knighthood. Dubbing himself "Ser Duncan the Tall", The Hedge Knight sets forth to the tourney at Ashford Meadow in search of fame and glory and the honor of upholding his oath as a knight of the Seven Kingdoms. Unfortunately for him, the world isn't ready for a knight who keeps his oaths, and his chivalrous methods could be the very cause of his demise.

Dunk was a knight who remembered the vows: to protect the weak and innocent. But that may have cost him everything when he protects a young woman from the malevolent Prince Aerion Targaryen. Now Dunk's simple dream, to ride in the tournament, has finally come true in a twisted turn of fate. No more are the spoils of a mock battle at stake. He must now fight for his innocence, his honor, and his life! With six unlikely allies at his side, Dunk takes to the battlefield in the deadly trial by seven! Swords are no longer blunted. Tourney lances are traded in for war lances tipped with steel! The battle is joined as The Hedge Knight rides to its brutal and tragic conclusion!