The novel takes place in a small town on Christmas Eve. An eccentric inventor purchases an unknown creature from a Chinese shop as a gift for his son. The creature must be kept in strictly defined conditions: keep it away from light, close to water and fed at night. The conditions are difficult not to violate, and now... the city is already overrun with small evil monsters, absorbing all human vices. Children, who have “let the genie out of the bottle,” are also joining the fight against evil. It would seem that there will be no end to the accumulation of nightmares, but...