There is a lighthouse in Blade Ridge, Kentucky. Hundreds of miles from the sea, it illuminates nothing but the desolate, wooded hills around it. For many years the lighthouse has been a source of amusement - until its eccentric builder is found dead and his belongings reveal a bizarre and macabre local history. When her husband died, Audrey Clark swore to carry on his work of building a big-cat rescue centre. Now she is ready to move sixty-seven lions, tigers and other species into a shelter next to the lighthouse - despite some troubling developments near her new home. For deputy sheriff Kevin Kimble, a man on the brink of a very dangerous relationship, the odd beacon seems to contain disturbing proof that a long-held secret was somehow known to others. Events convince Kimble that his secret is connected to the ridge, and that a terrifying evil might be on the other side of the divide between dark and light.