The village of South Mardian likes the old ways. This may be 1957, but
South M. still features a blacksmith, a village idiot, and an elaborate
fertility ritual performed at the winter solstice. There's squabbling,
of course, and things come to a head when one of the ritual's main
players is found be-headed, everything north of his neck having been
neatly lopped off by a ritual sword.