Biology professor Max Hurd's life is unraveling. Separated from his wife, pressured to perjure by his boss, and suspected by a psychotic cop of murder when that boss disappears already adds to his psychosis of fearing the dark. No one believes him of the real problem that has caused his boss and others to vanish near Gulls Bay: warrens of raccoon-sized carnivores multiplying in warrens beneath the dump, which DOE wants to re-open so that mining of methane can begin. No one seems to care if Max is eliminated. His ex-wife's pedophile biker lover is after the insurance money. The workers are locked out of their jobs at Gulls Bay. The Chinese chemists are cooking up bioweapons for use against Caucasians. All of these discontents are mustered against Max, whose separation leaves him only enough remaining money to live close enough to the landfill to see things that no one else believes in. By moonlight, he can see the landfill crawling with them. Biology tells him that those many mouths need food, and the biggest meal on the local menu of dark and foggy metropolitan Seattle are human beings. Max's only ally is Pugh's former lover, Dawn, who wants to cure him of his irrational fear of darkness, and silly notion that things out there do more than just go bump. Max cannot avoid the converging dangers. Without a plan, they will eat him alive.