Following her preliminary survey, her team notes the conspicuous absence of the park's dominant wolf pack and a substantial reduction of Algonquin's previously abundant wild game. It seems that Annie and her small team have arrived just in time to find themselves embroiled in the midst of an ongoing and quickly deepening mystery.

Several respected First Nations hunters have reported sighting a solitary black wolf of huge proportion roaming the lands killing wild and domestic animals at will. Supported by official reports, rumors of the creature spread like wildfire through the community. When a local hunter loses his son to the beast, he and other fellows hunters take up the chase but soon find they themselves are the hunted!

By coincidence, a tech savvy member of Annie's team links the monster's appearance to the ever more frequent incidence of hitchhikers and stranded motorists disappearing along the nearby highway. These events inspire Annie's group to pool their resources with those of the Martin River game officers led by Warden Ron Lyons in an effort to explain and resolve the mysterious occurrences.

Follow the scientists and wardens as they strive to reveal the true nature of the beast while unraveling the mysteries lying beneath. Feel their astonishment as Annie and Ron consult a notable authority whose specialty lies in the process of evolution and the possibility of a strange divergence from the norm; in doing so they uncover a disturbing truth cloaked and shrouded in the mists of memory and legend.

The novel, while endeavoring to be entertaining, is also uniquely speculative; the details concerning the existence of such beasts being substantiated within the established realms of science and documented history. This is especially true with regard to the renowned "Beast of Gévaudan that terrified the countryside of south-central France between 1764 and 1767 leaving a trail of dead in its wake. Readers may well find themselves looking over their shoulders the next time they venture into the woods.