The novel begins at Scotland's Loch Ness with an event that foreshadows the future. A little boy wanders away from his parents and sees some sheep that are stuck beside the water of the loch. Several sheep are snatched by something in the water. This time the child noticed a great wake, a profound undulation of the water heading for the desperate sheep. Something dark and huge was coming. This event marks the boy for life, and his telling of what he saw earns him the name "Loch." Thus Loch is tied into the hunt for the lake monsters by both events and his name.

Loch is next shown to the reader as an adventurous young man flying a hang glider at Lake Alban. It turns out that his father's work has taken Loch to remote areas of the world where he has learned...