It is a hot, lazy summer's day Will Stanton is fishing with two of his elder brothers and everything seems normal until he finds himself amidst a scene of panic-stricken flight, taking place hundreds of years earlier the last part of his task is about to begin in the battle of the light against the dark 'When the Dark is rising, six shall turn it back' - so ran the old prophetic rhyme and he is the last born of the Old Ones