Tom Larsen has been in the skeptical movement ever since he was young and eagerly wants to grow his involvement, including in his career, of debunking outlandish stories surrounding UFOs and perplexing monsters lurking in the shadows. The Bolingbrook Babbler tabloid, in particular, has been a source of outlandish stories he enjoys exposing on a regular basis. But when an incident occurs that both shakes him to his core and unmoors the very movement he's embraced, Tom breaks away on a new path that causes rifts in more ways than one. Now, with years of bitterness built up against those that spurned him, Tom has a chance to shift the narrative and execute what he sees as well-deserved payback. However, not all is as it seems in Bolingbrook, and Tom learns quickly that the rifts that form go beyond his town's--and even the galaxy's--borders. He encounters new alliances with old enemies, new factions with former friends, weredeer, secret societies, and even time travel along the way towards his goal, and each encounter changes his perspective more than the last. The fate of humanity is literally in his hands, and not all is as it seems in Chicagoland. Can Tom find a way to reconcile his resentful feelings and mend the many rifts around him before it's too late?