“Until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore, you will not know the terror of being forever lost at sea.” – Charles Cook

Charles Wickham is bored with writing the same old stories for a small-town newspaper and wants to find inspiration for that one story that will make his career. A spur-of-the-moment decision to investigate the mass beaching of a group of whales leads Charles on an adventure that may be more than he bargained for.

After meeting Hideo, the mysterious only survivor of a Japanese whaling ship tragedy, Charles is drawn into a world where the monsters that lurk in the old tales are much more real than anyone would ever believe. Alongside Bess, a woman who defies the expectations of the era , and a Russian sea captain who has lived in the world of folklore and myth for longer than anyone could imagine. The crew hunts and confronts an ancient creature evil lurking in the icy waters of the North Pacific. Charles has found the story that will make him a renowned author… if he survives long enough to write it!