Creepy tale set on a remote island telling of the legacy of an occult obsessed man. Karswell grooms his two sons to participate in a dangerous ritual on their 18th birthdays. But he's blocked by Theodore, the island's priest, who first helps the eldest escape to the mainland then shelters the younger in his church. Karswell summons an entity to destroy the priest but the spell backfires, killing him. Grown up, Christian returns for his inheritance, alarming certain locals who fear the effect Christian's presence will have on the island. Maybe they're right, for when Christian's brother walks through the woods something stalks him. And when Christian visits his home, a queesily familiar presence is there and he's compelled to ask the priest for an exorcism. But during the exorcism something attacks the priest. Then come the nightmares, as through damp and ancient corridors it comes for Christian, something patient, relentless and deadly. Awakening, Christian hears a cry from his father's laboratory. Racing there, he finds the altar set up, the candles lit. It's been prepared. Fearful, yet fascinated, he's drawn inexorably toward the book until his fingers touch the pages. Then, in an apparent hallucination, he sees local eccentric Graham Lennox attacked and killed. Next morning he discovers that Lennox really died. And this is only the beginning.