"Jane Smith"--not her real name--receives an envelope that contains a note from a woman she doesn't know and a key to an anonymous storage unit. The key leads her to a pair of taxidermied animals, a hummingbird and a salamander, which turn out to be two of the most endangered creatures on earth.

Jane has set in motion a series of events that quickly spin beyond her control. She is being followed, her home surveilled, her family in peril. The author of the mysterious note--Jane's only real lead--is already dead. She was, Jane learns, a reputed ecoterrorist. What did she want with Jane?

Profiteering wildlife smugglers; an amoral energy company; an extremist's apocalyptic vision. The threats come from all around, and time is running out--for Jane and possibly for the world.

Hummingbird Salamander is Jeff VanderMeer at his dazzling, cinematic best, wrapping profound questions into a tightly plotted tale of the fight to survive.