Sometime during the 1600s, Jacques, a young orphan from France, stows away aboard a fishing boat heading to Icelandic waters. Willing to brave the dangers and the rough life of a sailor, he is intent on one goal: to go to Iceland. There he hopes to find answers to the mysterious visions that have plagued him since childhood, to his unexplained ability to speak and read Icelandic, and also to the strange phenomena that sometimes occur around him.

During the 1961 floods in Kansas, the Clown is searching a house, looking for important documents. When the police arrive, though, a shoot-out ensues that ends in the killer’s apparent death. And yet … By the time the owner of the house returns, along with Alex Poliac, the documents have disappeared, and Alex is convinced his old enemy is still alive. Meanwhile, FBI Agent Laura Kensington is arrested for treason …

Jacques is dead, burned at the stake for sorcery by terrified villagers. The truth, however, is that Jacques never existed, and was merely the reincarnation of all-powerful Icelandic sorcerer Grimu. His soul, freed at the moment of his second death, has possessed the local magistrate, and his thirst for vengeance makes him commit terrible deeds. The island’s authorities are after him, though, and far worse than that: God himself has turned his eye towards the man who defies him …