Imagine this: You and two of your best friends have just been accepted into medical school, a coveted payoff after years of hard work and self-sacrifice. So you go on a road trip together, have a few drinks, a final fling before the long academic haul ahead. Young and bright, you feel the future surge beneath you like a sleek stallion, under your full control.

But a series of small lapses ends in tragedy and suddenly you're confronted with a terrible decision: Do you take responsibility for what you've done and risk losing everything? Or flee into the night unseen, with only God and conscience as your jury?

Sixteen years ago, Scott Bowman faced this decision . . .

Now a successful psychiatrist with a loving family, Scott endures a judgement more terrible than any god or man could conceive. An ancient, derelict appears in his practice, an apparently senile old man with a remarkable artistic talent. Otherwise disconnected from the world around him, this strange little man quickly demonstrates an ability to foretell events through his drawings.

But before long Scott has to wonder: is this eldritch prophet predicting events? Or shaping them?