Humanity's time is done. Wraeththu's time has begun.

Independent, isolationist and protected by the geography and legends surrounding the Rift of the Damned, the hara of the Gold Country live off what they can salvage from the sunken cities and abandoned towns. While hara of tribes elsewhere awaken to their newfound abilities, learn their bodies and discover new gods, the har-men of the Gold Country cling to the old, familiar ways of the human era.

Even before they were har, the folks of Cinder Hill fought against the tides of an ever-changing world, cursing the laws and politicians that killed every industry, except for Wild West tourism. Now, the laws have gone, the world itself torn apart to birth a wild new way of being. But in Cinder Hill echoes of the past linger on; hara who still deny the changes in themselves get by in the only way they know how - as their hardworking human ancestors once did.

When Tyse and his salvage trawler crewmates haul a mysterious object from the ocean, they initiate a series of events that will bring change to the Gold Country, whether those who live there want it or not. Tyse discovers that his terrifying new state of being is the only way to combat an implacable threat that seeks to eradicate all hara from the Gold Country and beyond. Powerful predators have appeared, their origins unknown, and none can hide from these deadly and apparently indestructible hunters. None except - perhaps - a har in control of his own powers.

Gritty and uncompromising, E. S. Wynn brings a new vision to Storm Constantine's ground-breaking Wraeththu Mythos, where the humanity remaining in hara fights to resist the inevitable change, and old prejudices and conditioning hamper the evolution of an isolated tribe.