A ruined city. Marauding bands of men. A flooded, poisonous world and an old magick carried in Terra's precious blood. In Terra Vargas' dystopian city, Couver, society clings to civilization at the edge of the Coastal Mountains and on the small off-shore islands. In the mountain above the city a massive refugee camp overflows with hordes of displaced people - the D.P. - who escaped the floods, earthquakes and volcanic activity that destroyed most of the Pacific Northwest of North America. Terra hates the D.P. who killed her mother. She haunts the small coves and islands rescuing injured animals left behind by the never-ending D.P. The arrival from India of a strange young man with a prophecy, and Terra's discovery of a family savagely murdered by rogue D.P., set in motion an adventure that dredges up old horrors and powerful old magic. For Terra's grandfather holds the key to how Couver survived when the rest of the Pacific Northwest died. That key rests in his bloodline - a bloodline Terra shares. But the stranger's prophecy came with a duty - to destroy the carriers of this bloodline before they destroy the world.