A graduate student and an archivist work together to fight a god. Fall, 1969. Ulysses Lenkov should be working on his dissertation. Instead, he's developing an unlucrative sideline in helping ghosts and hapless magic users. But when his clients start leaving town suddenly—or turning up dead—he starts to worry there's something afoot that’s worse than an unavenged death or incipient insanity. His investigation begins with the last word on everyone's lips before they vanish: the mysterious Dionysus. Sam Sterling is an archivist who recently moved back to Madison to be closer to the family he's not too sure he likes. But his peaceful days of teaching library students, creating finding aids, and community theater come to an end when the magnetic, mistrustful Ulysses turns up with a warning. There's a god coming, and it looks like it's coming for Sam. Soon the two are helping each other through demon attacks, discovering the unsavory history of Sam's family, and falling in love as they race to find a solution. But as the year draws to a close, they'll face a deadly showdown as they try to save Sam—and the city itself.

What's one more deadline? Ulysses Lenkov is on the verge of finishing his PhD when his ex-girlfriend shows up with a problem. It's been six months since the murder of her husband, Hugh, and Livia is plagued by strange noises in the night, poor sleep, and a magic book that may be cursed. The more Ulysses delves into the events that led her back to Madison, the more concerned he becomes. Ulysses' boyfriend Sam Sterling, jealous and unhappy about Livia's return, suspects that she may not be telling them the whole truth. In the meantime, he's starting to worry that he may not have left Dionysus as far behind as he thought—with odd effects for him and Ulysses. When Ulysses' academic advisor suggests their relationship is a problem, magically speaking, he's suddenly forced to make decisions he never wanted to face: break up with Ulysses to keep him safe, or stay together despite the risks. As Ulysses' defense bears down on them, the questions start to stack up. What really happened to Hugh? Does his death tie in to secrets from deep in Sam's family's past? And will Ulysses be able to figure it all out before he winds up a victim?

Sam and Ulysses have finally moved in together. Unfortunately, the new apartment is not quite the safe haven they'd hoped for—their neighbors have a ghost problem, and the building has a spider infestation. To make matters more complicated, Ulysses' brother Laz is back from Vietnam, and he's not happy about Sam's presence in Ulysses' life. Laz's anger isn't their only challenge. When their magical bond starts acting up, Ulysses' increasing discomfort and attempts to fix it drive a wedge between him and Sam just when it becomes apparent that the spiders are no accident and a shadowy cult may mean them harm. Maybe they're not done with Sam's grandfather, Julius Sterling, after all.