The strikingly glamorous Selene Catcher, an American scholar renowned for her books on Italian Renaissance art, is obsessed by a fierce devotion to the ancient Moon Goddess, Artemis. Selene's domineering father, who both worshiped and betrayed the Goddess, named his infant daughter for the Goddess's virgin form, setting the stage for the eventual disintegration of Selene's brilliant and tormented personality.

This story is told by her friend Giovanni Corio, an Italian priest, who watches in disbelieving horror as Selene sinks deeper and deeper into her pagan faith. Her bloody rituals begin to affect her writing as she passes inexorably through the mythic phases of the Goddess: from Selene, the cold intellectual...to Artemis, the chaste and vengeful Huntress...to Hecate, the Sorceress - creator of nightmares and spells.

But Selene's passion for the fascinating and mysterious Victor Bellacera threatens to overcome her devotion to Artemis. Fearing the Goddess's famous wrath, determined to appease Her by any means, Selene will stop at nothing to implore Her favor and forgiveness.