The events of the story take place primarily in the towns of Navissa, where three people mysteriously fall from the sky, and Stillwater, a more remote town farther north, in the Canadian province of Manitoba. Passersby on a road near Stillwater have often remarked on strange nocturnal doings involving large bonfires in the forest close to the town. Then on February 25 a fierce, cold storm struck; a few days later a traveler noticed that the town was empty. The Navissa Daily reported, "It is said that no single inhabitant can be found in the village, and that travelers coming through the district can find no signs of anyone having left it." A year later, Constable Robert Norris is visiting Navissa when "the wind seemed to rise, and abruptly it grew strikingly cold." He looks up and "a black spot came hurtling down at me, and I ran back...