The Festival of Bones begins with a manuscript and ends with a murder. Jude, a mysterious prodigy invites a professor of ancient literature and a former singer to a nightclub where he shows them a mysterious manuscript-the Prime Edda, which might have been used by the composer Richard Wagner in some sort of ritual related to his Ring Operas. Jude found the manuscript in the Himalayas, along with proof of alternate histories of the world, histories that have overlapped with our own, causing things as we know them to shift and change. He believes that somehow, the stories in the Edda relate to a forthcoming inversion, which he wants to witness. Together, they start to translate the work, but soon find themselves pursued by a number of parties all seeking to seize the Edda-and perhaps bring about the end of the world in the terrible Winter known as Ragnarok.