For over 600 years the male descendants of the Chabrillane family have all inexplicably perished on their 32nd birthday. The legend of the curse began the night Henri Chabrillane, killed the alchemist Michel Mauvis. Michel’s son, Charles Le Sorcier cursed the Chabrillanes. Henri was 32 years old that night, and no male descendant has lived to see age 33. Now, the last Count de Chabrillane is about to turn 32.

Max Finn stays at a rundown rooming house and does not know his fellow boarders, but one sad, mute street musician named Erich Zann, gets his attention. Each night, the old man plays haunting melodies on his violins. Melodies that plague Finn’s dreams and give him nightmares about an impossible cosmic land ruled by Nyarlathotep, the messenger of the elder gods.

The Jermyns have lived in their gothic estate in Cambridgeshire for centuries. Explorers and adventurers, they are a wild and violent bunch with a cursed, black history of sudden murder and blood. Until the birth of Arthur Jermyn. As brutal as his ancestors, Arthur also seems to possess a calmer, more intellectual side. These two halves seem to war for possession of Arthur’s soul as he researches the Jermyns’ past, hoping to find a reason or origin for his family’s wicked ways.