His brother Paul comes to comfort him and offers him his room for the night. The skylight in his room is thrown open by the storm outside. As he tries to sleep, he is attacked again by this mysterious threat, and he begins to scream, as though trapped in a nightmare. Eventually he goes to bed, but whilst preparing for bed, he is stricken with an inexplicable fear although everything seems perfectly normal, Will can sense that something is wrong. Will eats with the rest of the family all but one of his siblings, Stephen Stanton, is not there. Night has fallen by the time they arrive home. The boys leave with some mincemeat for their mother, and on the way back past the churchyard, they see the old tramp again, who is imminently attacked and scared away by rooks, much to the confusion of the boys. The two boys also meet Maggie Barnes the dairymaid at the farmhouse, who apparently has a liking for their elder brother Max. He tells him to keep it with him at all times, and not to tell anyone about it. After hearing the description, he states mysteriously that ' the Walker is abroad', and that 'this night will be bad, and tomorrow will be beyond imagining.' Realising that it is soon to be Will's eleventh birthday, Mr Dawson hands him an object a flat circle quartered by two crossed lines, made from iron. When James mentions the tramp, they catch Mr Dawson's attention.

Arriving at the farm, they meet Old George and Frank Dawson. Whilst on Church Lane, Will notices a man watching them from the side road, apparently a tramp, who disappears from sight. Both of them notice that the animals in the vicinity - the rabbits and the rooks - are nervous and fearful, and for no apparent reason. He goes out with his brother James to feed their pet rabbits, before the two of them head out to Dawson's Farm, passing Rooks' Wood and heading along Church Lane. The story begins on a snowy Midwinter's Eve in the Stantons' household in the village of Huntercombe, where Will awaits his eleventh birthday, living his apparently ordinary life. When the Dark starts to rise, Will with the help of Merriman Lyon and Herne the Hunter, stall the Dark in their effort and wait until the second and final rising. Dogging his footsteps is the sinister yet somehow sympathetic Walker, whose role in the struggle (along with Will's family) reveals the cruel consequences of loved ones caught in the middle of a timeless war. He is aided in his quest by Merriman Lyon, the first of the Old Ones, and races to retrieve the signs before the forces of the Dark, led by the mysterious Black Rider. On Will Stanton's 11th birthday, he discovers he is the last of the Old Ones, beings with ancient knowledge of the power of the Light, and must collect and join Six Signs to wage a battle against the Dark.

This novel is set in Susan Cooper's childhood home of Dorney in Buckinghamshire.

The dark is rising order