A bright crimson stain on snow and the smell of burnt flesh... Dr. Michelle Fredericks is contacted by the FBI to assist in the investigation of a series of grisly occult murders in Eastern Kentucky. The case looks like a straightforward occult serial killer, but things are always more than they seem. The sullen woods hold dark secrets. As she begins to suspect there may be more than one killer, she's drawn into a complex web of murder and deceit. The local police department, the almost feral people living in the mountains, and a vicious local cult all make her life difficult. And looming over it all is the unseen hand of a certain secret government project and what was done to her as a child.