Langdon Shaw is the second son and unfavorite to Henry Shaw Sr., an extremely rich newspaper magnate in New York in the 1920s. Langdon encounters the New Salem Philanthropic Society in 1926 and brings their leader Mary Lou Barebone to see his father so that they can put their anti-magic propaganda into the newspaper. He is abruptly turned away, and later on his more successful brother Henry Shaw Jr. is killed by a massive black cloud of destructive magic during a party for Shaw Jr.'s election.