The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Rice, Anne. Lasher. Alfred A. Knopf, 2006.

Lasher begins with an overview of the lives of a large clan of New Orleans witches known as the Mayfairs. The family’s matriarch and designee, Rowan Mayfair, has recently gone missing following strange occurrences on Christmas Eve, and the family has been thrown into turmoil in their attempts to locate Rowan and decide upon new leadership in her stead. Because of long-standing rivalries between the New Orleans Mayfairs and a separate branch of the family that lives in nearby Metairie, there is much concern among the family that Rowan’s absence might lead to a power vacuum or an upheaval. Tensions, therefore, are high.

Rowan’s husband, Michael, was mauled and thrown into the pool of the large family home on First Street during the Christmas Eve events; he begins the novel in recovery. However, he is revitalized by the grace of the most powerful Mayfair witch, whose name was Oncle Julien; Julien appears to Michael in visions and uses his significant abilities to exercise influence over the present day. Meanwhile, Julien has begun to interact with Mona Mayfair, a spunky young witch whose bloodline makes her particularly powerful and who is still only thirteen years old. In an effort to expand the family’s power and progeny, Julien exacts his influence on Michael and Mona so that they will sleep with one another, a pantomime of Julien’s own personal history—he impregnated a relation of his when she was only thirteen, an action which led to the perpetuation of the family bloodline. Michael and Mona begin an illicit affair.

Meanwhile, a researcher named Dr. Samuel Larkin reviews genetic files that Rowan has sent him from somewhere overseas and discovers that she has given birth to a creature that is not quite human. He rushes to New Orleans to speak with the Mayfairs about this and is intimidated along the way by a man named Erich Stolov, who is from the Order of the Talamasca, a historical group from Amsterdam that seeks to guard arcane secrets. Another member of the order, Aaron Lightner, is living and working with the Mayfair family, but is caught off guard when Larkin describes Lightner’s behavior to him; it becomes clear that Aaron has been left out of the Talamasca’s true plans. Aaron’s mentee, Yuri, soon joins him in New Orleans against Talamasca orders, and with Larkin’s help, the two ex-Talamasca and the Mayfair family begin researching the demon that has taken Rowan away.

Meanwhile, this demon—Lasher—begins attacking other Mayfair women as he keeps Rowan prisoner in the city of Houston. He is a creature called a Taltos, a descendant of Donnelaith, Scotland, and was originally brought into the world with the help of a Mayfair witch. The Taltos are a superhuman species that require particular genetic properties to reproduce their own kind, and Lasher believes that, in the Mayfairs, he has found appropriate hosts. As more and more Mayfair women die from uterine hemorrhages as Lasher tries and fails to impregnate them, it becomes clear to the Mayfairs what is going on. Rowan is presumed dead, and Mona Mayfair is declared the new designee.

Mona ends her relationship with Michael and begins successfully leading the family, but Rowan manages to escape her prison after she gives birth to a daughter, Emaleth, who is also a Taltos. The Mayfairs locate Rowan and bring her to the house on First Street, where she is placed under heavy guard. The Talamasca become more and more insistent on involving themselves, and they secretly kill Larkin. Lightner and Yuri warn the guards not to let anyone into the house, but Lasher arrives to reclaim Rowan and manages to use his seductive powers to empty the house of guards. Michael finds Lasher in Rowan’s room and moves to kill him, but is stopped by Stolov and Lightner, who want to keep Lasher alive and study him. Lasher appeals his case to Michael by delivering unto him his tragic story, but Michael is unmoved, and proceeds to kill both Lasher and Stolov.

Emaleth arrives in New Orleans and nurses Rowan back to health, but when Rowan awakens she panics and tells Michael to kill Emaleth. He cannot do it, so Rowan does instead.