A catastrophic earthquake devastates the Pacific coast of the United States, and three long-dormant volcanoes erupt causing climate disruptions triggering a series of extended and exceptionally severe winters that eventually render the country west of the Continental Divide uninhabitable and the rest of the country in chaos. Congress suspends the Constitution, mandates the military to restore order, and disbands after delegating authority to the Governing Committee, a quasi-political entity with a sinister agenda.

The Midwest, in the grip of a total power blackout, is a battleground between cartels and militant survivalist groups until the military ends their control in a bloody no-quarter war with an apocalyptic death toll. The Committee constructs Care City One in Lincoln, Nebraska, a state-of-the-art automated facility housing ten thousand demoralized refugees and six more supposedly similar ones are added over the next five years.

Life in Care City One is far from utopian - every refugee granted residence is required to surrender all control of their daily activities to LifeCare. But outside of the city, small settlements of determined people who have managed to hold on despite incredible hardships and privation will soon play a major role when outside forces threaten to destroy both the Care Cities and their own settlements.

An unlikely hero emerges: Care City One's top software specialist leaves the comfort of the city's automated lifestyle to search of a hacker and soon finds himself on a confusing and dangerous journey that becomes a race against time to find a hidden software fix that will prevent the destruction of everything he has learned to love. .