Winter, 1856: Sweetwater, MA is on the cusp of being cut off by snow. Jonathan Fallow, the discontented town doctor, wishes more than anything to escape the village he thinks he's wasting his life in -- but the choking, crushing winter seems set to trap him for another year. More still, the town is under siege -- there are whispers of strange creatures lurking in the woods, Devil-spawn, monsters, foul, many-eyed things. Setting out to prove the townsfolk wrong, Jonathan finds common cause with the gravedigger's brother, a surgeon in exile & a mysterious wanderer -- and realises the truth is far worse than what he set out to find.