Picking up the story a few years after the events of 'Return of the Crimson Guard', Stonewielder centers on the character of Greymane, one of the Malazan army's most revered commanders whose prowess in the field earned him the name 'Stonewielder'. But success breeds envy and Greymane has been denounced by the Malazan high command and sentenced to death by the Stormguard, the military cult who hold the stormwall against the alien sea, borne Stormriders who have threatened Korel, and the island of Malaz itself, for millennia. As various mysterious forces, sects and vested interests jockey for position and power, long-hidden secrets are revealed and ancient entities once more walk abroad.