Set against the backdrop of an ethereal world, partially inhabited by supernatural beings called 'reapers', this novel explores the fragility of the human condition in the context of the often dangerous and unpredictable nature of the environments and situations they must confront and over which they have little or no control. Reapers show very little interest in the affairs of humans. Coveting only essence, which flows through all living things as their only concern. The exception is the initial that acts as the guardian of both reapers and humans, being born human but becoming more than equal to reapers when exposed to pure essence. Darko Vera was an infant when his own power made him an orphan, leaving him with his grandfather. Thereafter he struggled due to being bullied by his peers because of his abnormal appearance and superior intelligence, until a cat approaches him on his sixteenth birthday.