Robin is an apprentice forester in the woods of Nottingham. The arrows he makes and sells earn barely enough extra coin to retain the title to his father"s small lands. The sheriff of Nottingham"s jealousy toward Robin"s father is just as fierce toward his son, and the sheriff"s men take every opportunity to harass the young woodsman. But when Robin defends himself by accidentally killing one of the sheriff"s men, he flees into Sherwood Forest, knowing that he has not only lost his father"s land and good name forever, but that he will live the rest of his days as a hunted man. But his friends Much, the miller"s son, and Lady Marian, Saxon daughter of a half-Norman lord who despises his Saxon blood, believe the disaster that has befallen Robin is also an opportunity: An opportunity for a few stubborn Saxons, cast out or outlawed in ways equally unjust, to gather together in secret under Robin"s leadership and strike back against the arrogance and brutality of the Norman overlords.