Altharese is a city surrounded by Death, who supposedly created the beasts lurking in the dark, waiting to strike. The Hands provide protection, as said by the Remanstaines, the divine family that pulls the city's strings from the church in the mountains, but not everyone believes the prophet after finding out that new beasts are on the horizon.

Symon Esqueburn estranged himself from his life to live out the rest of his days hunting in the woods outside Altharese. When a strand of mutation breaks out in the nearby beasts, he is forced to return home and face his past in order to figure out how and why beasts are becoming more volatile.

Celene Waul is sick of her desk job at Altharese's archive. When the reclusive son of a famed hunter walks in, she's ready to turn him away-until an opportunity presents itself to her. To climb the ranks of the archive and gain the trust of its benefactor, Igor Zenwill, a man of science that's a little too interested in the mutated beasts, she worms her way into Symon's investigation.

Together, Celene and Symon, along with new and old allies, delve into Altharese to uncover the secret behind the beasts' evolution. Shots are taken, lies are told, and in the end, both truth and blood spill.