Finn Hanson, an Afghanistan vet struggling with PTSD and a drinking problem, returns to his homeplace in West Virginia to find that this tranquil bit of mountain land has now become another war zone.
After three tours in the desert, Finn is in a bad way. The only time he leaves the house is to stock up on more booze. The only visitors he has are the ghosts of dead comrades. They stare at him accusingly and ask why he is still alive. When he sleeps, they follow him in his dreams. He has no peace, so he drinks more.
At night, drumming that sounds like incoming fire sends Finn into attack mode. The noise leads him to a forest clearing the locals call ‘the Cold Place’ and never enter. He finds strangely dressed young women dancing around a fire. They clearly don’t belong here. He leaps into the circle, but gets pounded by the burly drummers. The old Hexa points a bony finger at him and he is out cold.
Granny raised Finn to be a good church-going boy. She’s gone now and he’s left with nothing but guilt and memories. He hears her voice and sees her faded housedresses on the clothes line. The smell of fried chicken hangs in the air. These visions give him hope and keep him alive. Remembering her old stories about marauding Vikings and ancient rituals, he starts casting Granny’s runes to connect with her and find a pathway back from the darkness. Then his new neighbor, Emma Larson, knocks on his door asking for help. Emma says people dressed like medieval Norse and speaking a foreign language have invaded the woods. They are so strange and menacing that she feels uneasy. Finn tells her he’s seen these folks and they were none too friendly, but he’d been pretty wasted at the time. He tells Emma not to worry, he’ll take care of this. Truth is, Finn has no idea what to do about the damn Norse.
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