Meet Walter, the ghoul next door. He could be the most boring man alive…except for one small detail: Walter isn't human. Though he was raised by humans, Walter is, in fact, a ghoul, a mystical flesh-eating monster of myth. And now, for some reason, some one – or some thing is trying to kill him. Suddenly the monster who wanted to be human finds himself pursued by murderous hunters, hounded by werewolves, and embroiled in the absurdly complicated world of vampire politics.

Somebody wants Walter dead. Again. He doesn't know who the strangers in town are, or what they are, and he sure as hell has no idea what this 'key' is that they're looking for, but apparently somebody told them he has it, and now it's the key, or his life. As if life and death wasn't enough to worry about, a forlorn teenager has decided to make Walter her new best friend. Oh, and Percy's gotten in deep with a drug dealer who wants to use Walter's funeral home as a front. Walter is beginning to understand why most ghouls live like hermits.

Winter has come to Collinswood Colorado, and it's brought something terrible with it.Walter Keppler is doing his best to live as ordinary of a life as a ghoul living among humans can, but the very fact that he's alive is damaging the reputation of an elder vampire. That means that it's only a matter of time before the blood sucking monster makes another attempt on Walter's life.If that's all that was going on, it would be bad enough, but there's a serial killer in town, and a murdered vampire in the morgue, and bodies are starting to pile up. What's a ghoul to do?

Collinswood Colorado is at war! It's not a war that the vanilla populace knows about, but it's a dangerous time to be a supernatural creature. A powerful, criminal organization from the coast is trying to take over from the old guard. And somehow Walter finds himself in the middle again.When one of the girls from the rathouse tells him that he's the only one who can help her, Walter's first instinct is to mind his own damned business. But Walter is a father, now, with new responsibilities and new expenses, and he's not going to be able to do that without either making some friends, or making some money.But in taking on the position of bodyguard, Walter quickly finds that he's jumped into dangerous waters. Getting to safety might require him to do the most dangerous and stupid thing that he's ever done. Seek help from Percy.