Who is sending Doug Hunter mysterious e-mails that seem to be from his murdered brother, Andy?

Why are severed human body parts being discovered in drains and rivers across the country?

What is the real meaning behind the graffiti that ominously states "All your gods are dead"?

When Doug travels to Leeds, where six months ago his brother's defiled and mutilated corpse was found on an abandoned industrial estate, he is drawn into a web of religious mania, orchestrated torture, and deceit. There he encounters the Church of All Sufferance, a strange sect comprising of bald, androgynous men and women who claim that they are able to see "all the colours of pain".

Then, when he meets and reluctantly starts a relationship with Andy's ex girlfriend, all the pieces of a bizarre cosmic puzzle begin to slot into place, and Doug realises that the bloodied acolytes who call themselves the Sufferers have dark and monstrous plans for the entire world...