Despite living in a world where climate change has led to titanic hurricanes, ceaseless drought and famine, and an abandonment of the old world, a New York City father worries about his burgeoning art career.

When a mysterious new member joins a group of struggling authors, the friends discover that they may have a supernatural creature in their midst, who can grant a single author success above all the others—but at a cost.

Two American expatriates in modern Tanzania are mourning a lost lover in a tourist inn when a murderous hyena breaks their peace, hungry for the lover's corpse.