In 2000, at New Scotland Yard in London, Detective Brent Halligan has been assigned to investigate a series of brutal murders known as the "Skeleton Murders". Assisting him with his investigation is Dr. Melanie Turner, an anthropologist at the Oxford Anthropological Museum, who, along with historian Arthur Blake, discovers that the murders match the description of cannibalistic sacrificial rites performed by Britannic druids. It is later revealed that a demonic superior druid seized power over the druids in order to force mankind to submit to his rule by performing a "final ritual", which would transfer the knowledge and power of the druids to five infants known as the "Inheritors". The ritual was not entirely completed, but the Inheritors are strong and powerful enough to complete the ritual themselves.