Germany, 1659: When a dying boy is pulled from the river with a mark crudely tattooed on his shoulder, hangman Jakob Kuisl is called upon to investigate whether witchcraft is at play in his small Bavarian town. Whispers and dark memories of witch trials and the women burned at stake just seventy years earlier still haunt the streets of Schongau. When more children disappear and an orphan boy is found dead, marked by the same tattoo, the mounting hysteria...

After the hangman Jakob Kuisl is framed for his sister's murder, his daughter Magdalena and her paramour, Simon, enlist the help of a network of beggars in order to save him from the noose.

A 1668 family vacation turns into a nightmare when a series of violent murders are thought to be the work of a werewolf.

The year is 1672. Hangman Jakob Kuisl and his family travel to Munich, the cosmopolitan heart of Bavaria, for a meeting of the prestigious--for dishonorable hangmen, at least--Council of Twelve, the leaders of the empire's hangmen's guild. But something dark is happening behind the scenes: in the past weeks, young women have begun turning up dead.