In the wake of her brother's brutal murder, Kate Bishop has a lot of questions. Why was her gentle, mentally handicapped brother keeping a man chained in his cellar? What was his relationship with the detective now leading the investigation into his death? Could his murder be connected to the death of their reclusive uncle two weeks earlier? One man, the enigmatic author of a book called 'A Brief History of Evil', contacts Kate saying he has the answers to her questions - answers that will expose her to the nature of true evil. Kate, he says, has a hidden talent, a talent that has marked her for death at the hands of humanity's super-predators.