Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of rape, death, death by suicide, and graphic violence.

The Dark Tower resumes the story at the point that Song of Susannah ended. Father Donald Callahan (a character from ‘Salem’s Lot who entered the Dark Tower universe through a magic door), Jake Chambers (a boy from 1970s New York), and Oy the billy-bumbler (a dog-like creature) enter the Dixie Pig, a club in New York City. Susannah Dean, a woman from 1960s New York, has been taken to this club to give birth to a demonic entity while she is being possessed by a being named Mia. Before they burst into the Dixie Pig, where a host of vampires and other threats wait, Callahan assures Jake that he will not hesitate to use his gun. Jake, meanwhile, approaches the danger with the calm, collected mind of a gunslinger. He coaches the old priest on how to acquit himself in the gunfight.

Callahan holds a scrimshaw turtle, a magic object carved from ivory that has the power to entrance anyone who sees it.