Tavian has never forgotten his real mother, a shapeshifting Japanese fox spirit like himself, who abandoned him. On a trip to Japan, his homeland, he discovers that she's alive. But a faceless ghost warns Tavian to stay away from her. Even worse, Tavian's magical fox powers have vanished. Finding his mother in Tokyo's seamy underworld may be his only chance to beat back the vicious dog spirits stalking him and his girlfriend Gwen-and to recover from a fatal magical illness eroding his human side.