Werewolf Steven Matuchek and witch Virginia Graylock meet on a military mission to stop the invading Islamic army from unleashing a secret superweapon, a genie released from a bottle in which it had been sealed by King Solomon.

Among other things they stop an elemental summoned as a student prank which had gone amok, confront a succubus/incubus on their honeymoon, and enter the hell dimension to save their daughter (who has been kidnapped and taken there, with a changeling left in her crib in her place).

While in Hell the protagonists are at a loss to understand the identity of a moustached man with a strange armband who speaks with a strong Germanic accent, and why the most powerful demons tremble at the sight of him, or why he uses the "ancient and honorable symbol of the fylfot".

He remains himself while turning into a wolf, and is able to fully use his four-leg incarnation to fight various enemies; and in this magical world, there is no social stigma attached to lycanthropy.

The couple's daughter, Valeria Matuchek, appears as a minor character in Anderson's A Midsummer Tempest—where she is a self-assured young woman, exploring by herself the various timelines.