 After the events of the previous novel's ending, in which Jacob and Emma hide in a phone booth with Addison, Jacob discovers he has the ability to control hollowgasts as well as see them, Jacob then makes the hollow he's currently controlling back off, making it possible for the three to escape from the phone booth they're trapped in.They rest and prepare for the journey to rescue their friends and the kidnapped ymbrynes.The group manages to narrow down where their friends may have been taken and, with the help of a boatsman named Sharon, they cross over a polluted river by the name of Fever Ditch to a dilapidated village corrupted with drugs and run by the wights (Devil's Acre).