Neb Corcoran has only one memory from before the accident: a white bird standing on a nighttime bridge, and the voices of a distant choir. When the hearse he was driving went into the water, his daughter died, his wife's body was lost, and his mind was damaged. Previously the Hyde County coroner, Neb now serves as night watchman at the correctional facility. For ten years, he has struggled to live beyond that single memory.

When the charismatic preacher who pulled him from the water a decade ago dies, Neb knows it is time to leave Hyde County behind. But currents deeper than he dreams are flowing through the dark channels of the marshy land. Ferenc Baptiste, son of Neb's savior, prophesies doom upon the Congregation of the Latter Rain, even as he becomes the shepherd of the strange flock. Myra Deed, head warden at the correctional facility, warns Neb of the dangers waiting in the world beyond the county line, a world he is ill-equipped to face. Far out to sea, a hurricane stirs to life, taking aim at the North Carolina coast. And from the aimless darkness comes a white-robed killer, seeking lives.