In the dazzling new thriller from the master of dark suspense, the hand of fate reaches out to touch an ordinary man with greatness. So long as he is ready. So long as he is, above all, afraid.

Jimmy Tock comes into the world on the very night his grandfather leaves it, as a violent storm rages outside the hospital. At the very height of the storm's fury, Josef Tock suddenly sits up in bed and speaks coherently for the first and last time since his stroke. What he says before he dies is that there will be five dark days in the life of his grandson - five dates whose terrible events Jimmy will have to prepare himself to face.
Rudy Tock is all too ready to discount his father's last words as a dying man's delusional rambling. But then he discovers that Josef also predicted the moment of his grandson's birth to the minute, as well as his exact height, weight and the fact that Jimmy would be born with syndactyly - the unexplained anomaly of fused digits on his left foot. Suddenly, the old man's predictions take on a chilling significance.