In the bitter cold of an unrelenting winter Tomas & his son Peter arrive in Chust & despite the inhospitability of the villagers settle there as woodcutters. Tomas digs a channel of fast-flowing waters around their hut so they have their own little island kingdom. Peter doesn't understand why his father has done this nor why his father carries a long battered box everywhere they go & why he is forbidden to know its contents. But when a band of gypsies comes to the village Peter's drab existence is turned upside down. He is infatuated by the beautiful gypsy princess Sofia intoxicated by their love of life & drawn into their deadly quest. For these travellers are Vampire Slayers & Chust is a dying community
- where the dead come back to wreak revenge on the living. Amidst the terrifying events that follow Peter is stunned to see his father change from a disillusioned man to the warrior hero he once was. Marcus draws on his extensive research of the vampire legend & sets his story in the forbidding & remote landscapes of the 17th century. Written in his usual distinctive voice this is also the story of a father & his son of loss redemption & resolution.