Walter Sparrow receives a book for his birthday from his wife, Agatha. The first words he reads changes his once placid existence into a whirlpool of psychological torture and mayhem. The book is a chilling murder mystery that seems to mirror Walter's life in dark and uncontrollable ways. The book's main character is a brooding detective named Fingerling who seems to copy Walter's own history. As the book comes to life, Walter becomes factuated by the most frightening part of it - Fingerling's dark obsession with the number 23. Walter soon starts to see the number everywhere in his own life and becomes haunted by the fact that he is damned to commit the same horrific crime as Fingerling. Now Walter is on a dangerous quest to understand the mysteries of the book. If he can unlock the dark power of the number 23, he may just be able to change his future.