[1] In 1921, an unnamed monster-hunter travels to Tempest Mountain, in the Catskills range, after reports of various attacks by a group of unidentified creatures against the local inhabitants reaches the media.

Gathering what information he can from the locals, the hunter finds out that most of the legends surround the foreboding Martense mansion, a century-old Dutch homestead, which has been disregarded by the police as it is apparently abandoned.

The hunter wakes up to discover both his companions missing and, in a flash of lightning, witnesses a demonic shadow briefly cast upon the mansion's chimney by a grotesque monster.

The storm soon clears up but Munroe doesn't move from the window, and when the hunter tries to rouse him, he finds his face has been hideously gnawed away by some unseen horror outside.

The resulting offspring would spread out across the valley and eventually became the current population of mountain men, but the core family stuck to their mansion, becoming ever more insular.

Jan Martense, struck by an unusual restlessness, had joined the colonial army, and he was the only source of information on the rest of the family that had ever reached the outside world.

As another thunderstorm approaches, he sees countless creatures emerge from the ground; one of the weaker members of the grotesque mob is attacked and eaten by one of its compatriots.

Thoroughly traumatized by his experiences, he has the mansion, surrounding woods, and hillside completely destroyed with explosives, but is unable to heal his mind from the horrors that he experienced, always fearing that creatures like the Martenses could be anywhere.

Unlike with "Herbert West", however, Houtain ran recaps of the story so far with each installment after the first, relieving Lovecraft of the need for objectionable repetition.

[citation needed] Comparing it to Lovecraft's earlier story in Home Brew, Lin Carter wrote that while "The Lurking Fear" is "a more serious study in traditional horror, it lacks the light, almost joyous touch of 'Herbert West.