The shapeshifters battle an old enemy in the first of an epic two-part story! Everything is quiet in the village. Perhaps too quiet. When nighttime intruders take dozens of hostages, Hal and his friends find themselves up against a familiar enemy: the dreaded scrags of Old Earth. The constant threat of executions renders the shapeshifters powerless to do anything to help. Instead, they're forced to cooperate and spend time in the dreaded Prison of Despair, a dismal place in the woods with an insidious curse. Hal and his resourceful shapeshifter friends have to find ways to escape the prison undetected. But in doing so, they discover the true reason the scrags have walked into the village... and it looks like the real trouble is just getting started.