The Devidovic Circus troupe has suffered foul fortune of late. They've lost trusted members and gained untrusted ones in exchange. They were accused of thievery in the West, and murder and witchcraft in the South. Gautier Devidovic has been circus master long enough to have grown accustomed to such allegations. His stock and his profession invite such contentious charges, but he knows that when it comes time to fade from the public eye, he always has a home to return to. The troupe travels back over the Carpathian Mountains to the Old Country, and the cloistered, rural village where Gautier was born. But things are not as he remembered: an unearthly fog drowns the township, concealing the ties that once unified the old families. The Devidovics are no longer welcome; festering grudges split the ancient village in two. The relatives Gautier had sought are either dead or gone mad, and now he hears that a child has vanished-and that his bloodline is to blame. But all of these worries pale when Gautier discovers something lurking in the woods: something inhuman, intelligent, and hungry. It is waiting, watching from behind the veil of fog, clawing ever closer to the unprepared, quarreling village. Fortune turns fouler still.