In the summer of 1816, the world was shrouded in darkness. The sun dimmed beneath ash from a volcano that had erupted the year before in faraway Indonesia. Crops failed, skies turned gray, and cold rain fell through what should have been summer. Across Europe, people called it “the year without a summer,” and many believed the end of days had come. It was during this strange, unnatural season that five young travelers gathered in a lakeside villa near Geneva, Switzerland, to