Conflict builds as Count Stercus, the occupiers' lecherous commander, seizes the weaver's daughter Tarla, whom Conan also admires. Conan himself, a boy of twelve, is kept down as much by his overbearing blacksmith father as the invaders.
The Cimmerian villagers, including young Conan's family, bear the Aquilonian yoke resentfully but stoically. The Aquilonian Empire, bent on expansion, invades southern Cimmeria, occupying a number of villages and building the armed encampment of Fort Venarium to keep them pacified.
