A deep space transporter crash-lands on a desolate planet circled by three suns. Among the survivors are pilot Carolyn Fry, mystic Abu `Imam' al-Walid, cop William J Johns and convicted criminal Richard B Riddick, and their first thoughts are of survival and escape. Then Fry finds out that the planet suffers a total eclipse every 22 years, which is when the hibernating, flesh-eating inhabitants awake and hunt.