It recounts the journeys of Awa, a lesbian Moor necromancer, through an irreverently portrayed 16th-century Europe, helped by friends who include historical figures such as the polymath Paracelsus and the artist-mercenary Niklaus Manuel.

Leaving Andalusia on a search for the necromancer's grimoire, she is caught on the order of the overzealous inquisitor Kahlert manipulated by a shadow from her past, her undead ex-lover Omorose.

Rather luckily, she is freed by artist-turned-mercenary Niklaus Manuel Deutsch of Bern, with whom she strikes up an improbable friendship, soon followed by further friends in the form of polymath Paracelsus and the lesbian weaponsmith Monique.

Club praised it as "beautifully balancing putridity, profanity, and poignancy",[1] and Publishers Weekly appreciated its "relentless dark humor blended with occasional tragedy".

[2] The Wall Street Journal's reviewer characterized the novel as "macabre, gruesome, foul-mouthed and much more complex than the usual vampire-and-zombie routine".