Liam is cursed with immortality and the burden of carrying out a dead witch's vengeance. Hilda, a witch of spectacular power, blames four families in Liam's village for the murder of her innocent sister Gretchen. Tortured and eventually put to death for crimes of witchcraft, Gretchen carried with her three distinct scars that she received through a series of trials. Liam shares these scars--burns on his hands and feet, a gash across his chest, and the deep bruising caused by a hangman's noose--and he is charged with eradicating each of the four bloodlines so that he may earn the right to carry such scars. Until all descendants of the Goodes, Brewers, Millers, and Spensers are dead, Liam will have a tortuously long existence, void of love or meaning outside of death. Ana, a young woman Liam meets during his quest, is quick to realize the details of Liam's plight and offers to join him as he hunts down a man who has been stalking him and even killing the few people he calls his friends.