William Glass has never seen a ghoul, and has never gone back in time. He’s never witnessed a person being crucified or being cooked alive over burning coals.

He’s lived a pleasant life in Venice with his wacky aunt and uncle since his parents were killed when he was fifteen. Now at the age of 26, William is beginning to see success as an artist, and his matchmaker aunt has finally fixed him up with a young woman he likes.

 But when an earthquake frees an ancient ghoul from the tomb in which he’s been imprisoned since 1576, William is faced with a kind of evil, horror and savagery he could not have imagined. He finds himself pitted against an immortal and powerful creature with a  taste for human flesh, and who is bent on a revenge that could kill most of Europe.