ignatius perrish spent the night drunk and doing terrible things he woke up the next morning with a thunderous hangover a raging headache and a pair of horns growing from his templesat first ig thought the horns were a hallucination the product of a mind damaged by rage and grief he had spent the last year in a lonely private purgatory following the death of his beloved merrin williams who was raped and murdered under inexplicable circumstances a mental breakdown would have been the most natural thing in the world but there was nothing natural about the horns which were all too realonce the righteous ig had enjoyed the life of the blessed born into privilege the second son of a renowned musician and younger brother of a rising latenight tv star he had security wealth and a place in his community ig had it all and morehe had merrin and a love founded on shared daydreams mutual daring and unlikely midsummer magicbut merrins death damned all that the only suspect in the crime ig was never charged or tried and he was never cleared in the court of public opinion in gideon new hampshire ig is and always will be guilty because his rich and connected parents pulled strings to make the investigation go away nothing ig can do nothing he can say matters everyone it seems including god has abandoned him everyone that is but the devil inside