In a dark and distant corner of the American frontier, nature has gone terribly wrong. Plant growth is out of control. Wildlife is mutating. The food chain is in complete disarray. But none of that will stop cagey explorer Magnus Lief in his quest for the most valuable pelts on Earth. Pelts he cannot live without. Pelts that nature itself seems determined to deny. Between Magnus and his treasure stands a wilderness of horrors. Desperate, Magnus turns to the foulest of men: Civil War captain "Lefty" and his company of rogue soldiers. The barbaric mercenaries are Magnus' only hope of delivering the priceless cargo through a forest teeming with nightmarish beasts. That is, if the soldiers don't kill him first. Captive among the bloodthirsty posse is a young man they call Stickman. Abused, half-starved, and effectively blind, Stickman's plight stirs the depths of Magnus' character. It awakens the man he once was, a man who admired beauty and defended innocence, long lost to the hatefulness of mankind. A friendship results, one doomed by a world of cruel ultimatums.
