Paqua's enormous eagle, ravenous for human flesh, swoops toward the imprisoned Nasren.

In the southwest of the Soviet Union, bordering on Turkey and Iran, lies one of the most ethnographically complex areas in all Eurasia — the Caucasus.

The Caucasus Mountains, which dominate this area nearly the size of Spain, are home to a bewildering variety of ethnic groups, some of which seem to be survivors from earlier eras. These groups speak roughly fifty languages, the majority of which are unrelated to any other languages on earth, and show complex and exotic features that set them apart from the other languages of Eurasia. In this one area there are three distinct language families: the Southern or Kartvelian, the Northeastern or Daghestanian, and the Northwestern. The Northwestern languages are perhaps the most complex of any in the region and are spoken by the Abkhazians, the Abazas, the Ubykhs, the Kabardians, and the Adygheans.