Jason is a werewolf. He is also one of Anita Blake's best friends and sometimes her lover. And now he needs her - not as a vampire hunter, or a federal marshal, or a necromancer, but as a friend, a girl he promised to introduce to his dying father. Anita must help Jason say goodbye to a father who hates him and has never loved him. Traveling to Jason's hometown, they must maintain the appearance of being a couple in love. The appearance that Jason is an ordinary guy, and Anita is just a beautiful woman. Just a few days in a small town. How difficult can it be? It was high time Anita Blake realized that there was little in her life that fit the description of “ordinary and standard.” It is at this moment that Marmee Noir, the ancient Mother of All Vampires, decides to make her next move. She knows that the connection between Anita and her Master Jean-Claude is not so vicious that it makes them vulnerable. Mommie Dearest is dangerous even in her centuries-old sleep, shrouded in darkness in the land of old Europe. Marmee Noir decides to rebel and take the reins of power into her own hands again. And only Anita, who once dared to disturb the sleep of the Great Mother of Vampires, can help her become a full-fledged queen. Anita is what Marmee Noir wants, and she always gets what she wants.