In the serene village of Marsh Hall, a devastating tragedy has cast a long shadow over the community. The revered Lord Liege, Sir Edmund Beake, and his entire family, have been brutally slain in their castle by what appears to be an enormous spider. Locals begin disappearing in a tract of woods running along the village, panic sets in, leaving people wondering who will be the next to be taken by the lurking beast. King Daegon Malakoda, dispatches a rider to an unassuming tower nestled in the heart of the kingdom. There is only one man the King can trust to unravel the the strange deaths and disappearances in Marsh Hall: the legendary, Lord Kallidus Prynne.