Bogdan Vasilevsky is a young man still finding his footing in a world not his own. In Tomsk he enrolls at the Mining Institute, where geologist-prospectors are trained to seek out emberite, a magical ore. What he really wants is a place on one of the expeditions into the frosty realm known as the Eye of Winter – to search for the mysterious lost lands he first read about in his late father's journals.
But his first days at the Institute are overshadowed by something far darker. A string of killings has swept through the city, and whatever is responsible, it certainly isn't human. A famous monster-hunter has been summoned from the capital to take charge of the case – and the last thing Bogdan can afford is to draw his attention. Because Bogdan carries a forbidden Gift of his own…