When readers left Lyra in The Secret Commonwealth she was alone, in the ruins of a deserted city. Pantalaimon had run from her part of himself in search of her imagination, which he believed she had lost. Lyra travelled across the world from her Oxford home in search of her dmon. And Malcolm, loyal Malcolm, too journeyed far from home, towards the Silk Roads in search of Lyra . . .

In The Rose Field, their quests converge in the most dangerous, breathtaking and world-changing ways. They must take help from spies and thieves, gryphons and witches, old friends and new, learning all the while the depth and surprising truths of the alethiometer. All around them, the world is aflame made terrifying by fear, power and greed.

As they move East, towards the red building that will reunite them and give them answers on Dust, on the special roses, on imagination so too does the Magisterium, at war against all that Lyra holds dear.