In the first book of a five-book series, Assault, we are shown life in Massachusetts Bay Colony in the late 1600s, where an uneasy peace between the natives and the White people has opened the land for settlement, most notably by the Downing family. The Downings hold the townspeople in their sway, both financially and spiritually, stoking fears of witchcraft and devil worship. Faythe Wentworth, the strong and independent heroine of the series, has only her wits and her knife to save her.