A boy runs screaming through the night. He has stumbled on the body of a girl, terribly mutilated. It looks like the work of a prowling sex-maniac, but police investigations reveal much more. The terror they are hunting is more than human; the search they have started will uncover a terrifying mixture of rape, blood lust, murder, scientific diabolism and ruthless human vivisection, backed by a deadly political force.

In an ordinary suburban recreation-ground The Thing first makes its presence known. A presence more savage than savagery itself...more terrifying than terror. As much beyond human comprehension as it is beyond human decency and human laws...