A wartime narrative charts the emergence of a baffling affliction in rural districts that causes sudden deaths and deepening dread. Censorship keeps the wider public uninformed while local observers and investigators propose explanations ranging from covert human activity to experimental rays and uncanny forces. The text moves between reports of strange incidents—lights on water, inexplicable deaths, a child and a moth—and discussions of competing theories, following efforts to locate hidden causes and culminating in a conclusive encounter that brings the outbreak to an end.