Arthur Leander, a famous actor, dies on stage in the middle of a performance of King Lear. Jeevan, a man training to become an EMT, rushes the stage to try and save Arthur, but it’s too late. He ends up comforting Kirsten, a young girl, who witnesses Arthur’s death. Later that night, Jeevan walks home in the snow. His friend, an ER doctor, calls and tells Jeevan that a plane has arrived from Russia full of sick passengers who are dying. This is the beginning of the Georgia Flu pandemic, which will kill ninety-nine percent of the population.

Fifteen years later, civilization as readers know it no longer exists. There is no electricity, air travel, cars, or stores. All governments and economies have collapsed. Settlements are starting to emerge, as well as doomsday cults.

Fifteen years after the collapse of civilization, Kirsten is now a young woman and is part of a Traveling Symphony. The Symphony goes to different settlements to perform Shakespeare’s plays and classical music, but the world is full of danger. Charlie and Jeremy, two of Kirsten’s friends, left the Symphony while Charlie was pregnant to stay in one place until the baby is born. When the Symphony returns to get them after two years, Charlie, Jeremy, and the baby are missing after the settlement was overrun by a doomsday prophet.

The Symphony goes in search of their friends and is led to a rumored location called The Museum of Civilization, an airport settlement somewhere near Sovern City. As the group travels, flashbacks provide clues to who Arthur, Clark, Kirsten, Miranda, Jeevan and others were before the collapse of civilization. Arthur became a famous actor who married three times. Clark left his punk-rock days behind and got a PhD and became a successful businessman. Kirsten was a child actress who befriended Arthur before his death. Miranda left an abusive boyfriend for life in Hollywood until she realized that her husband was cheating on her. Jeevan used to be a paparazzo and entertainment journalist, but was looking for something more meaningful in his life and was training to become an EMT.

After the Symphony leaves one of the settlements, they find a stowaway in their midst. It’s a young girl who is promised to be the fourth wife of the prophet. Sayid, Dieter, and Sydney, three members of the Symphony, all vanish. Kirsten and August, another Symphony member, get separated from the group. They encounter followers of the prophet. His men have abducted the other Symphony members and he wants to trade them for the stowaway. Dieter accidentally dies while in custody. The prophet is prepared to kill the others to get what he wants. A young boy who is traveling with the prophet ends up shooting him.

Kirsten, August, and Sayid are within walking distance of the airport settlement. They meet Clark and are reunited with Charlie, Jeremy, and their daughter Annabel. Clark shows Kirsten evidence of an electrical grid coming on in the distance, and they are all left with the hope that civilization is about to reemerge.