Following a poor harvest, a young orphan boy is released from a life of serfdom and sets off from a remote farm, not knowing what fate or fortune holds for him. The year is 999, it is ten days before Christmas and a dark prophecy hangs over the land, for the abyss is to be opened and the devil released upon the world. Willem's arrival at the small coastal village of Ebbsweirmouth coincides with two sudden and apparently unconnected deaths. Here, he...