A collection of 33 poems of the weird, horrific, and supernatural by an established poet and author of the speculative. Coffman is a traditional formalist poet, primarily a sonneteer, but also an experimenter with various cultural forms and the "hybridization" of new varieties.

The poems are thematically linked, dealing with the rise of a Lich, an evil sorceror who extends his life by magically putting his separable soul into a jewel. The evils wrought in his realm are many. The poems are excerpts from a horrible, human-skin covered book that chronicles his evil reign and its aftermath.

A brief Glossary of the several traditional and experimental forms used in the book is provided.