Traces of Magic explores the pre-history of Kentucky, a land strangely uninhabited when Europeans came across the Appalachian Mountains, in ways parallel to how epic tales like the “Lord of the Rings” series unlocked the imagination of the British Isles residents to their pre-history. The story follows the struggles of a group of young adults who get caught up in defending the wonders of their land against an assassins’ guild bent on power and profit regardless of the cost. Knights and bards, clergy and users of magic, as well as many ordinary good people all help defend against the diabolic powers working with that guild to enslave the valley by controlling the weather.

A sorcerer's spell book casts fear over the Celtic-Norse colony in pre-colonial Kentucky. Holy knights and clergy fail to get permission to destroy it from the magic user who holds it; but his attempt to destroy properly it has devastating consequences.

With the penetration of the earth’s defenses by the death monster, the city and valley are devastated. They struggle to discover how to reweave Earth’s broken sacred protection barrier, but they cannot seal it shut until they somehow coax her back through it. Evading the death monster’s touch which can kill with fear on contact, various characters, even ghostly ones, work together to deceive her. These intricate activities and conflicting interests reveal the intertwined character of all those living in the city and the valley – or dying there.

The poisonous ideas spread by the Assassins’ Guild start to infect even the paladins, but this does not interfere with the conversion of many (but not all) of the druids to Christianity. Incorporating some junior magic users at part of the druid schools in the Valley upsets some city folks—including Madam Nadine, who attacks their compound and puts out a “gift” contract on one of the senior magic users. In her attempt to cover up that crime, she seduces someone to activate the weather control spell in the “fishbowl,” with effects more devastating than those of the Death Monster. Some of the same characters who helped fight that Death Monster now face the need to destroy the fishbowl—but they have to do so within Madam Nadine’s quarters. What affect that attempt might have on the future of that whole area concludes the struggle and the story of the pre-history of Kentucky.