Mankind's salvation lies in the hands of a burnt-out priest One snowy midnight in Chicago, a drunken ex-priest is accosted on the street by a well-dressed stranger - who turns out to be his former altar boy. The young lawyer wants Father Martin Delaney to perform a very special, ancient ritual - the spiritual cleansing of a mystery mansion way down south. Decades after a tragically bungled exorcism got him defrocked, Delaney is terrified by this request. Arriving blindfolded in the middle of a raging blizzard, he soon realises that the vast residence is indeed seriously haunted. But that is not its most alarming aspect...with only a book of rituals and his rickety faith to aid him, the disgraced priest must confront an age-old, overpowering evil - to avert what might become world-wide disaster.