Pinecone Grove is a sleepy little timber town half way between nowhere and nowhere else. Called Pinecone by the locals, it has three pubs and a dark history.

Cassandra Porterfield is a blow-in, somebody who stopped at Pinecone on her way through a couple of years ago and hasn't moved since. She doesn't know why, perhaps it's her friends, perhaps it's familiar. It isn't the town. She hates it.

Bernard Monroe is the owner of Circus Elysium. He has a history with Pinecone, which is why he avoids it when he can. He's there because he can't avoid it. He planned to bring some magic to the tired little lives of the residents there, but then the killings started.