Eight billion people populate our warming planet. Several million of them are werewolves passing as humans, living discreetly, biding their time. The vice-president of the United States is one. So too are army generals, university professors, environmental scientists, soccer players, media influencers, and a future prime minister of Canada.

So too is fourteen-year-old Ben Pelletiere whose two-foot-three-inch-long tail can no longer be hidden down his pant leg without serious discomfort.

Sent by his parents to a sled dog camp in Maine to harness the coming beast, he and six adolescents similarly 'masked' surrender their childhoods as bodies reconfigure, identities falter, and minds narrow to Jack London's "toil of trace and trail.' Even in his limited capacity to think beyond the moment, however, Ben senses a larger scheme at work in which he and his companions will play a role.

When the wendigo calls him to action, will he answer its summons as human, dog, or wolf?