Mysterious forces are destroying entire cities and their populations. Hal and Alissa are a middle-aged couple and the last survivors in their hometown. By sheer luck, they live through an air raid that totals everything around them. To survive, they become people they are not--or at least, people they never realized they could be.

Step one is to dig out of the building they are trapped beneath. Step two is to find food and shelter. Step three is to seek someplace safe, even though they don't know where safe is or if it still exists. This is now a survival game, played by two unprepared people who are strangers to each other, even after twenty years of marriage.

Hal, the breadwinner, finds himself hapless and weak. His wife, usually meek and agreeable, begins a transformation that is impressive, but also disorienting. Alissa hunts and plans, while Hal stumbles and broods. Left alone in a ghost town, stripped of the safety of civilized society and its distractions, this couple begins to act more honestly than they ever have. Flashbacks of their life together weave a story of love, grief, deception, and acceptance.