When King Peleus discovers his sea nymph wife Thetis secretly laying their infant son in a magic fire to burn away his mortal half, he intervenes, and the furious Thetis abandons husband and child, retreating to the sea. A young boy named Patroclus arrives at Peleus's court after accidentally killing a companion in a game of knucklebones, and the two boys become inseparable brothers in all but blood. Recognizing that his son carries a divine legacy to uphold, Peleus delivers both boys into the hands of the centaur Chiron on Mount Pelion, the great mentor who raised Heracles, Jason, and Asclepius before them. Under Chiron, the boy is renamed Achilles and raised on the meat of lions and bears, trained in strategy, medicine, and combat, forging one of the greatest warriors the Greek world has ever known.