Taliesin MacGuire promises his grandmother he will discover why his father left thirty years ago and never returned to his family. Finn MacGuire was the seventh son of a seventh son, and the legend of shapeshifter followed him throughout his life in Southwest Virginia.

Was Finn the good son? The unfaithful husband? The doting father? The charming uncle? The spoiled brother? The wolf or the lamb?

Tal finds few people have fond memories of his father and fewer want to talk. Finn left a backwash of heartbreak, but no physical clues to his disappearance. Time sweeps away memories and paper trails.

With the help of his cousin, Dr. Brigid MacGuire, and a woman dredging her own past, Cliodhna Fitz-Adams, Tal searches for answers to set his grandmother's - and his - mind at ease about Finn's disappearance.

Echoes from Irish lore, the Lost Colony, and the Virginia witch trials weave strains of an ancient melody as Tal discovers that time silences the past and nonconformity is a howl in the night.