White man's power runs through copper wires. When the wire is cut, their clocks all stop, Geronimo whispers to Wylie E. Chatto, a mentally challenged young Apache man. Soon, Chatto smells rosemary—the scent of complicated things, of trouble brewing on an electric stove.

Electricity is the first to go. Then gasoline. Then law and order.

The Sacred Alarm Clock doesn't tick. It rides in on an influenza strain called New Flu. It starts with nausea but soon goes to the brain and puts the victim into a Spanish Inquisition frame of mind.

Civilization's last hope lies in the hands of people who never quite fit into the old world. People like Chatto, who saw the whole thing coming in a vision; Mona and Chris, star-crossed lovers hiking across a ravaged countryside in search of civilization; Karma and Joseph, a pair of outcast teenagers who find themselves at odds with a city full of wild dogs and crazy people; and Mary, who forages for food and ammunition across a derelict urban landscape while avoiding gangs intent on her rape and murder.