The Prologue challenges the implications of the statement made in the Book of Genesis, which suggest that the onboarding of Noah and his family was calm. Instead, it argues that the blasé description fails to capture the panic and fear of the townspeople on the edge of Armageddon. The Prologue also introduces Mrs. Noyes and her daughters-in-law. Mrs. Noyes’s experience is used to show the fear of the onlookers as she discovers a deadly fire—with something inside it.

The world introduced as the setting is not limited by the expectations or assumed natural order associated with the time period traditionally ascribed to the flood. Instead, the Noyes family live in a world where animals talk and dragons, unicorns, fairies, and giants exist alongside novel interpretations of angels and demons. In order to understand the boundaries of this world steeped in magical realism, the reader must suspend both disbelief and expectation. The story begins in an afternoon in August following, some disturbing happenings, both natural and supernatural, which leave most of the characters unsettled and anxious.

The book begins with a palpable sense of urgency provided by the

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