Banished and bloodied, Jacques Du Lac survived the woods outside Fort Courage, but the nightmare followed him back. Rescued by the fierce warrior Longhunter and her unlikely band of exiles, Jacques is pulled deeper into The Vast. When he inadvertently plummets into the Skinwalkers' lair, he emerges changed and with a terrible understanding of what these creatures truly are. Back inside the fort's walls, his wife Virginia and daughter Marie fight their own war, navigating the cruelty of the Council with quiet ferocity. But the walls of Fort Courage offer no real protection from the darkness without, or the men within.