It's the undetermined but near future. America's population is plunging, beset by a mysterious plague that robs individuals of their mental faculties before causing catastrophic respiratory failure. One by one, the institutions of society are also failing. Electric power, media, and law enforcement have become nearly non-existent. Only a small force, of military origin but exhibiting strange behavior and superhuman abilities, seems to be functioning.

Amid this dark and disturbing world, former soldier Alan Moss, who remains unaffected by the disease, struggles to survive the roving bands of murderous thugs—of both sexes—who are preying on the dead and dying. As he undertakes a thousand-mile drive from his home in Orlando to his mother's farm in western Pennsylvania, the highways become concrete battlefields that expose him to horrors he had not encountered even during his difficult military service. Along the way he hooks up with Reed McCallum, an ex-schoolteacher and recent victim of a mugging; and Brooke Fields, a nurse who has left the disintegrating medical system at Walter Reed Army Hospital. Together, the trio faces danger at every turn.