Brad Holliman must grapple with the forces of ancient gods and a lost civilization in the midst of modern day New York as he reconsiders his own perception of reality. Drawn by the memories of his childhood, Holliman accepts a position as headmaster at Crayden, a once trendy and now failing private academy on Manhattan's Upper West Side. As he struggles to drag the decaying school back to life, he finds himself steeped in blood and mysticism as he shares a vision of a distant past that no one else knows. Holliman "sees" a world through eyes that still remember a savage past as if it were only yesterday. He is forced to accept the impossible as the only logical explanation, and he must somehow reconcile ancient savagery with the bloodless cruelty of the modern "civilized" world.