Within the deep woods of rural Alabama, along the forgotten southern course of the Black Warrior River, lies an unseen world long feared by the residents of the tiny town of Carlsdale. Down through the centuries, few people have survived a visit to this hidden place long enough to talk about it. Among these fortunate souls is Jack Kenney.

Thirteen years old at the time of the event, Jack and his family were forced to flee Carlsdale in the aftermath and head north to the larger city of Tuscaloosa. Mercifully, the menace from their former home left them in peace for nearly eight years...

But everything has changed after the brutal murder of a noted archaeologist and professor from the University of Alabama. Jack and his older brother, Jeremy Kenney, attend the University and are close friends of the late professor. Within days of his death, they are abducted by a secretive federal agency determined to unlock life-changing secrets from Jack’s experience as an adolescent that could also reveal the identity of a mysterious menace threatening the entire Earth in the present.

However, until a persuasive agent sharing similar personal demons joins the interrogation, Jack remains mum. Sharing what he knows could place those he loves in grave danger... not to mention set off potentially dire repercussions for the rest of humanity. Willing to talk after so many years spent in sworn silence, Jack leads Special Agent Peter McNamee on an extraordinary roller-coaster ride involving a mystical and deadly realm in America’s Deep South.