He came to New York as a writer with a dream. What he became was something out of a nightmare.

It's the summer of 2003, and 22-year-old Michael Andrews has finally escaped his small Ontario mining town for the city of his Spider-Man daydreams. But the wolf attack on a lonely highway changes everything. Now he's navigating Manhattan with powerfully sharp senses well beyond normal human limits, a transformation he can't control, and a beautiful woman he's terrified to let close.

By day, Michael shelves books in a Greenwich Village shop, using his uncanny ability to read emotions to connect with customers. Those same abilities have given this previously undateable book nerd an unexpected confidence—enough to win the attention of Rachel, an aspiring actress whose kindness draws him in.

But when the full moon rises, he loses himself to his alter-ego: a six-foot grey wolf. Haunted by guilt and longing for connection, Michael must decide whether his curse will define him—or if he can transform it into something more.

Some curses can't be outrun. The only question is what you do when they catch up.

This origin story of the Canadian Werewolf series is told through "current day" 2017 bookends of a prologue and epilogue timeline that follow immediately after Only Monsters in the Building and immediate before the events in the next book, A Canadian Werewolf in London, Ontario.