Levi Brunner, a wolf biologist, is doing recon on a new wolf pack in a remote canyon in the Bitterroot Mountains. During his explorations he discovers three women camping at a remote spring. They invite him to hangout, swim, dine and drink with them. Later that night, Cali, one of the women, invites Levi to swim out into the spring with her. Even in the day, thought the water is crystal clear, the spring is black at the center. Cali, in an embrace Levi can't break, pulls him down into the water, where he blacks out. He awakes on a remote beach, a dark ocean stretching beyond him, waves breaking and frothing the shore. Above him is a temple. Returning to his tent the next morning, explaining the experience off as a drunken dream, Levi continues with his biological observations, photographs and notes. But his life is irrevocably changed. Over the next few months, Levi discovers the women are Pegaiai, Greek water nymphs, guardians of the spring, and that the temple he saw in his "dream" was built to worship Lycaon, a Greek king who was turned into a wolf for serving Zeus the flesh of a child. Lycaon is historically the first werewolf. After a wolf slaughter, and several murders, the Valley is up in arms. At stake are the newly migrated wolves, and a harsh divisiveness which threatens to destroy the Valley communities. Along the way, Levi travels to Greece, falls in love, and is arrested for murder. Wolves, both material and supernatural, propel the narrative to a gut-wrenching and unexpected conclusion.