In a pivotal scene, Lavinia reflects on the poet’s obsession with swords and spears:

The novel begins in the half-wild landscape of pre-Roman Italy. Lavinia is a young woman of 18 when Trojan ships arrive, fulfilling prophecies she has long anticipated. Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin By Adam Roberts

But here is Le Guin’s genius twist: Lavinia knows she is in a poem. She is aware that her life was written by a dead poet (Virgil) who died before he could finish his epic. She refers to him as "the poet," a shadowy, mortal man who visited her in visions. She knows her destiny was scripted, yet she fights to find freedom within its margins.