Close your eyes. What do you see?
On the hottest Fourth of July weekend in decades, two men have come to Hopewell, Illinois. One is a demon, a dark servant of the Void with a terrible secret goal. The other is John Ross, a Knight of the Word who, while he sleeps, lives in the hell the world will become if he fails to change its course on waking.
At stake is the soul of a fourteen-year-old girl mysteriously linked to both men ...
And the lives of the people of Hopewell ...
And, while friends and families picnic in Sinnissippi Park and fireworks explode in celebration of freedom and independence, the fate of mankind itself.