Life in The Citadel is determined by The Controllers and Security. Society is divided into clones, non-clones and Automatons. Misfits and criminals are cast into The Outlands or executed. Everything is owned by The Conglomerate: Golem & Traum. Joel works in publishing and on an anthology whose authors are being killed, one by one. As he tries to understand why this is happening he encounters two women who introduce him to the occult just as he discovers that the foundation of his world is built upon dark forces of cosmic proportions. This is the first book in the series The Dark and The Light.