Twelve-year-old Marius promised his mother on her deathbed six years earlier that he would look after his little brother, Jean-Pierre. Jean-Pierre carries the curse of the loup garou, the werewolf, because he was born on Christmas Eve. Southern France in 1559 is in the grips of a widespread hysteria as the Church tries to supress the growing power of heretics, Huguenots-- people who don't believe in the Holy Church. The villagers of Marius' town become swept up in the mass frenzy, hungry to find and destroy anyone who defies the power of the church.