Tired of his frantic life in the city, Richard Haley returns to his home-town in the countryside to begin a more peacful life. His new house backs onto the Blackhart Forest, which he remembers with great affection as he spent much of his childhood playing there. He now intends to enjoy the forest through his frequent runs but this simple hobby soon leads to obsession as he continues to encounter a mysterious barefooted girl who leads him in a chase which brings him deeper into the forest, deeper into an impossible but enchanting reality from which it becomes ever harder to escape. And, of course, by this time the scarring has begun. Every week another beautiful girl is found at the edge of the Blackhart, unhurt but hideously disfigured, never to be beautiful again. They have no memory of their abduction or of any pain. The medical world is baffled, everyone is scared and the forest is no longer a safe place to play in. Meanwhile, Katrina (Richard"s girlfriend) is fighting a...