Heartbroken due to Anya's death, Xander finds himself in LA. While thought to be dead by his friends he forms an uneasy alliance with Angel and his team, he must decide if he has something to live for. Working under Wesley's supervision he attempts to rebuild his life and find a place where he belongs. That would be easy if he didn't have to share a workspace with Harmony Kendall.

With Halloween night planned ahead, Ethan makes the deadly mistake of involving someone real in his chaos, someone who doesn't take kindly to being yanked across the ocean by mystical means and forced into another body, leaving Sunnydale forever changed, along with a few other surprises for the Slayer and her friends...

Away for a year, Xander comes into his own. And finds out just what it takes to save the world when the forces of evil come knocking.