In the wilds of Southern Appalachia, lies Wolter Mountain—a sacred place for the Indians and for their predecessors. But the land atop the mountaintop, taken over by two Englishmen, Brummitt and Hooper Voth, is undergoing frightening changes. Strange and evil rumblings begin to happen around the mountain—man-like creatures prowling around, mysterious voices reciting evil incantations that terrorize Luke and Creed Forshay who live at the foot of the mountain. Then a wandering minstrel, known only as John, learns that the Yoths are Old World druids who are hell-bent on reawakening the pre-Indian spirits that sleep at the summit of Wolter Mountain. Armed with his own arsenal of personal powers, John and an Indian medicine man must fight their way through the druids' sorcerous defenses to rescue their friends from certain death at the hands of the blood sacrificing priests. A tale of mysticism and terror featuring Wellman's famous wandering hero.

Many eons ago a humanoid race with supernatural powers roamed the North American continent. But when vast hordes of Indians migrated across the Bering Strait land bridge, the Shonokins soon became a defeated people. The few remaining Shonokins were able to survive and evolve into an all-male race with man-like features except for cat-like eyes and an elongated third finger... In a small southern mountain town, the Shonokins have resurfaced and are led by Brooke Altic, a recognized leading citizen. Altic is interested in recruiting Silver John, a young mountain man whom he meets at a local music festival. John and an old grizzly mountain farmer and his pretty daughter Callie Gray all get caught up in the Shonokin's effort to enlist John for their revolutionary plot.

Country folk, especially backcountry folk, are like to be a mite suspicious of strangers. But a plain man with a civil manner and no highfalutin airs can count on a neighborly reception from simple, decent people, so when the natives of Wolver looked to be fixing to whale on Silver John, he reckoned maybe it wasn't the sleepy little hamlet it seemed. But then, if it was, he had no business there anyhow. The man who picked the guitar with the silver strings had seen some doings in this mountain country, and had a reputation with some almighty powerful souls, not all of them flesh and blood. So when the government got curious about the goings-on in Wolver, it wasn't so strange that they should have asked Silver John to see what he could see, nor at all peculiar that the wanderer had shouldered his pack and his guitar and hiked up the trace of a road to take a gander. Wolver had a desolated look, from the smoking trash piles outside the town to the tumbledown ruined church. The children in the grimy yards stared at him dully, while their elders ignored him or watched him with undisguised hostility. John had no quarrel with them, but it sure looked like they were set on picking one with him...

This Silver John adventure takes the honey-voiced folksinger to the site of a rising replica of Stonehenge, which selfish and ruthless millionaire Noel Kottler is building in Appalachia as a money-making tourist attraction. A pack of werewolves who live nearby spell trouble for his plan, though —- and even they may not turn out to be his worst problem...

Silver John - so named for the lithe and powerful strings of his ever-present guitar - is back. In this fifth and most exciting novel in the series, Manly Wade Wellman's popular hero is called by the voice of Cry Mountain... into a confrontation with his most threatening adversary. There are a wealth of cryptic stories about Cry Mountain, and as John listens to the tales of eerie, hostile animals, of brave daredevils who fared up the slopes never to return, and hears the enigmatic, unnatural keening voice emanating from the mountain, his adventuresome spirit is aroused. Too curious and intrigued - some might say foolhardy - to be dissuaded, John begins his long, perilous trek up the steep mountainside. There he finds mystery and danger enough for any man, and eventually meets the courtly, assured Ruel Harpe, descendant of the infamous Micajah Harpe. John soon discovers the darker side of Ruel Harpe's hospitality and finds honesty and courage the only weapons against powerful sorcery and temptation.