Alta owns the Menagerie, a large building in San Francisco. A writer meets Alta through Victoria, the writer's partner. Victoria has fallen into a large inheritance from the white side of her family. Alta is covered in tattoos of animals. Alta takes Victoria and the writer through the Black Menagerie. The writer sleeps with Victoria and is not sure if she dreamt of wrestling Alta in the middle of the night before Victoria disappeared. Some days later, Victoria and the writer have a falling out while in bed. The writer, feeling drawn to Alta, goes to the Menagerie and confronts Alta.

In 1815, a longtoothed and well-read woman arrives in San Francisco. She goes to the Farallons for ten years to hunt seals. Her prowess as a hunter is said to have rapidly depopulated the local seal population. In 1920, the woman returns to California. The meaning of race has changed—she is now deemed "black." She owns a mansion and wears many skins, calling herself "Alta." Alta is a spirit who can possess living creatures and take on their skin as her own. Many of her clients are wealthy and black, and use her haunting services to instill fear in white elites.