New York City, 1951. Tom Riley is a firefighter with Engine 174, responding to a burning power station on Staten Island. The call is routine until Tom falls through a weakened floor and gets separated from the rest of his crew. Fighting his way back up through the smoke, he witnesses something that has nothing to do with any ordinary fire: a Chimera Longleg dragging one of his fellow firefighters to a violent end. Tom and the only other survivor, a firefighter named Smitty, manage to escape the station and emerge into the streets of Staten Island — which are no longer anything close to ordinary.