Fragments of the Methuselah comet collide with the Earth. Biology spirals out of control, reawakening horrors that humanity thought had long since been relegated to the realm of nightmares. A five thousand-year-old being resurfaces in Russia's Pedan mountains. As a survivor of the previous holocaust, he sets out to prepare humanity for the deadly anarchy to follow.

Cassie Novakov, a New York Times writer, is mercilessly driven into the centre of this horrific mystery, driving her to question the fundamental fabric of reality and having to accept her true nature at all costs.