Ash is a tall man, more than seven feet, and is soon identified as a Taltos which is a near-extinct, immortal, superhuman race. Ash is a wealthy owner of a doll manufacturing company and feels very lonely, believing himself to be among the last of his kind and believing that there are no females remaining that are of mating age.

A young woman who is almost comatose, Rowan, is at the Mayfair family home where she is being cared for by her husband Michael and a thirteen-year-old cousin, Mona Mayfair. Mona soon reveals that she and Michael have had an affair. When Rowan is snapped out of her state, she isn't angry at the affair because she believes it might provide a child for Michael. Rowan has given birth to two Taltos children and both died at Rowan's hands. When Rowan and Michael learn of the murder of a friend, they leave the country in search of clues. There they meet Ash who recognizes them immediately as witches and they recognize him as a Taltos. Together they join forces to discover the plot behind the murder and discover a Taltos woman who has been held with the hope of finding a mate for breeding purposes. But Ash immediately realizes that the woman is past child-bearing age. The three avenge the murder and set matters right in an ancient cult. They then go to New York.

There, Ash reveals the history of the Taltos to Rowan and Michael and the three seem to make a friendship connection. Though Ash and Rowan are attracted to each other, they deny the attraction because Rowan is committed to Michael. Rowan and Michael depart Ash's New York home for their own in New Orleans where they discover that Mona has already given birth. The child, Morrigan, is a Taltos and Mona immediately confronts Michael and Rowan, insisting on the child's safety. Mona says that she'll leave the family home rather than allow them to kill Morrigan as Rowan did two children of her own who were Taltos. Rowan killed her son, Lasher, because he was evil. She killed her daughter because she realized that having male and female Taltos puts the human race in jeopardy because a female Taltos gives birth to a child who grows to mature size in a matter of minutes. When Rowan and Michael first arrive home, Michael's clothes have Ash's scent and the girl goes crazy, pleading with them to take her to the male Taltos. They refuse. Ash becomes concerned when time passes and he doesn't hear from Rowan and Michael, who he had come to consider his friends. As soon as he comes near the house he catches the scent of a female and is angry that Rowan and Michael know that he's horribly lonely but kept the existence of this female from him. Morrigan also catches his scent and breaks through a window to get to him. They leave together with plans to mate near the ancient home of the Taltos.