It is a different world. It's North America, but very little of what you know is the same. The sun still shines and the grass still grows, but there are no people. There are, or perhaps there aren't, twelve Curials -- kit fox, dolphin, raven, lioness, and the rest -- who intervene in the lives of the inhabitants. There are the inhabitants, a myriad of animals: mice, otters, meekrats, and buffalo, to name a few. They live in their towns and cities, pursuing various occupations, having occasional celebrations...and now and then they live in fear.In fear of the Blood Jaguar, the thirteenth Curial, who returns from time to time and visits a horrible plague on the world, nearly killing it entirely. At such times, a fisher, a skink, and a bobcat are somehow impelled to go on a quest to stop her. They always fail. There is no reason to think that this time, of all times, Bobcat will somehow not fail.