At the center of this of this book is the beautiful, unconquerable witch Merrick. She is a descendant of the gens de couleur libres, a society of New Orleans octoroons and quadroons steeped in the lore and ceremony of voodoo, who reigned in the shadowy world where African and French - the dark and the white - intermingled. Her ancestors are the great Mayfair Witches, of whom she knows nothing - and from whom she inherits the power and the magical knowledge of a Circe.
Into this exotic realm comes David Talbot - hero, storyteller, adventurer, almost-mortal vampire, visitor from another dark realm. It is he who recounts Merrick's haunting tale - a a tale that takes us from the New Orleans of past and present to the jungles of Guatemala, from the Maya ruins of a century ago to ancient civilizations not yet explored.