"It is the first day of November and so, today, someone will die." Or so Sean believes having watched the Scorpio Races his whole life. At least one of those deaths was his father, and since then Sean's life hangs in the balance each November because he too races the water horses. Part horse, part sea monster, the water horses come to Thisby Island each year. Racing them has become part of the local economy just as much as the death and destruction the water horses cause when the early winter storms wash them inland. No farm, farmer, or livestock is safe from their malevolence. Perhaps that is why riding them is such an island tradition, and popular attraction to mainlanders. To date only men ride the dangerous beasts, but that may change. Puck Connolly, first girl ever, may be forced to participate.