Harry Dresden is the only wizard in the Chicago phone book and consults for the police department on those so-called 'unusual' cases. But there's no love lost between Harry and the White Council of Wizards, who find him brash and undisciplined. Yet now the vampire wars have thinned the ranks of wizards, the White Council needs Harry, like it or not. He's drafted as a Warden, and assigned to look into rumours of black magic in the Windy City. And, if that isn't enough, another problem arrives for Harry in the form of the tattooed and pierced daughter of an old friend, all grown-up and already in trouble. Her boyfriend was the only one in the room when an old man was attacked, but in spite of this, he insists he didn't do it. What looks like a supernatural assault straight out of a horror film turns out to be ...well, something quite close to that, as Harry discovers that malevolent entities that feed on fear are loose in Chicago. All in a day's work for a wizard, his faithful dog, and a talking skull named Bob ...