Ward, Nat and John survived their brush with the Straw Men, but they did not survive unscathed. John, the ex-cop who lost his daughter to the Upright Man, is the most seriously spiralling down into something dark, but Ward is adrift, penniless and aimless while Nat is struggling to tolerate the conventions of ordinary Federal investigations. Some very odd deaths and a very odd encounter deep in the forests of the Pacific Northwest seem unconnected, but set things in motion again for our damaged protagonists.