Lightning flashes. Another child disappears....
When Zorka Circus performs, its big top roars with laughter and cheers, but when it moves on, children vanish from the European towns it leaves behind.
Circus security chief Rurik suspects a killer hides among the international performers, but they close ranks - they've always viewed lightning-scarred Rurik as the monster. Nevertheless, he's determined to find the culprit and stop them before anyone else dies and the only place he can call home is ripped apart by the murders.
Into Zorka Circus comes the Skomori clan, despised as gravediggers and ghoulish bloodwalkers. A one-day truce allows bloodwalker Sylvie to marry. Instead, she finds a body. Alerting others will defy her clan's strict rules, break the truce, and leave her an outcast.
When more bodies turn up, the killer's trail becomes impossible to ignore. Rurik and Sylvie must follow the clues - even if they lead to something unimaginable.
