Greg Benedict watches in horror as his wife and baby stand by the window inside of a burning building. Then, before the flames reach them, they vanish. It was just the beginning. Sporadic vanishings occur over the next several months, all leading to the day when half the population disappears. Gone. Chaos ensues as humanity struggles to come to grips with the sudden vanishing of half the life on Earth.

Since childhood Nila Carter has been made to spend every weekend at the family cabin. In her teenage years she believes it to be a prison; as an adult it becomes her sanctuary and means to survive. When a mysterious outbreak occurs in India, Nila's brother, Bobby, a virologist with the CDC, places the family on a precautionary alert to be ready to bug out. Unlike anything he's ever seen, the rabies-like virus is not just deadly; it causes extreme violent behavior in those infected.

Jolly Copper is one of the few people who know the world is on the brink of cataclysmic destruction.... not because he had any scientific knowledge or prophetic dreams, but because he is nosey and read what was on a fellow bus passenger's phone one day. He learns there will be an unprecedented series of natural disasters, and the expected grand finale disaster is predicted to be a tidal wave massive enough to swallow half the globe.

When the outbreak comes to a head, Laney is away from home. Chasing her dream of being the winner of a baking reality show, she is sequestered like a juror. No phone, no internet, no knowledge of what is happening. When the show evacuates all of the contestants, somehow Laney is left behind. Shut off from communication when the city loses power, Laney is clueless about what is happening and lacks the knowledge of the virus she is facing. Those infected experience a violent fever rage before the virus ultimately consumes them and takes their lives.

After surviving a terror attack that took her husband, Lucy is trying to rebuild her life for her two teenage children. She makes the decision to move them all to an off-grid mountain community. Away from the insanity their life had become, their temporary solution becomes a permanent way of living. Lucy believes she is giving her kids the perfect life, and a way of living that they truly want. Until the day her son, Vincent, decides to leave without saying a word. Lucy and her daughter, Avery, leave their secluded life to search for him in the nearby town.