The wondrous planet Zalan, lying far beyond the brim of known space, has but one detriment to its unprecedented beauty: the shockingly unpredictable, raging-red lightning storms that spawn the murderous fiery bolt able to fell any unprotected man, beast, or home. It is on a night when one such storm rages that a stranger arrives at the Tavern on the Hill, in Zalan's old world sector. A sinister, deadly, fascinating stranger, who rashly mocks the screaming bolt and wakes old, primeval superstitions and fears, and new nameless dreads, in the locals gathered at the hearth. The stranger also holds the lovely, gentle, innocent daughter of the innkeeper in special thrall. He lures her along dark, forbidden paths to an exquisitely evil, unhallowed place, where beguiling dreams are deviously entwined with nightmares. It is here that she is to be terribly transformed, and where an unimaginable fate is waiting for her, her loved ones, and eventually... the entire planet.