Before the great flood, in the time of Jared, greed like the breath of a viper snaked through the city of Eridu. An unfulfilled lust spread over the hearts of men, as dark as the clotting shadows of nightfall. Hul, reluctant lord over the wealthy house of Arad and kinsman redeemer for two widows, a fact that enrages his wife, struggles with a household of dour women and the murder of his uncle and a five-year-old boy, an event instituted by his mother and carried out by his slave. His affluent life is complicated by a beautiful woman he can't have and who lives in his quiet moments, the scent of her lingering like a siren song, drawing him to her camp. Evil surrounds her but he chooses not to see it until the obsession puts his survival and the lives of his family in question.