Kriss is a pale, emo, teenage misfit in village of hearty medieval peasants. He suspects that the couple who raised him are not his birth parents; he is haunted by ghosts, or gods, who whisper to him about the northern kingdom of Darkovia where his true destiny lies. Kriss's only friend in town is a kind girl named Anya, who confiders her own sadness over her mother's recent death. Kriss goes into the forest to hunt down the beast who killed her, and defeats it at great personal cost. This isn't a complicated story, but Naifeh is good at developing characters with clear personalities and motivations. I am curious to see where this story goes in volume 2!