Haiti is associated with voodoo, Papa Doc and the Tonton Macoutes; of political violence and desperate poverty. In this book, the author is initiated into the feared Bizango religion, an African animalist cult, whose associates venerate coffins and human skulls and talks to zombis, members of the walking dead. The book is part history and part personal travelogue and introduces the reader to a gallery of eccentrics from present day Haiti, as well as from the nation's rich past.