A mysterious event kills most of the world's population in an instant by ripping minds from across the globe to enter different bodies. Victor finds himself transported into the youthful body of the leader of Bexar County SWAT. As he struggles to understand what has happened to him - and to the rest of humanity - he must first contend with his new mind and his new body. He is joined by Sam, a genius computer hacker turned high-tech executive, whose mind has been transported into the body of a beautiful young woman and is struggling to come to terms with his own shocking change. They discover that only those transferred into a body physically capable of withstanding the violent seizures that result - survive. The survivors also learn that, as a result of the seizures caused by "the Event," their speech-processing centers are permanently damaged. Upon hearing a language not their own, they react with violent rage. War is inevitable as the opposing "xeno-lingual" groups contend for rapidly diminishing resources. As power grids, communications, the internet, and modern infrastructures fail - and violence becomes the norm - groups band together to protect their own "tribes" and to build a new society from the ashes of the old. Sam and Victor band with other survivors in a fortress-like, experimental "green technology" building built into a hillside in the Texas Hill Country that offers the best hope for long-term survival. Has this been caused by God, aliens, a government-experiment-gone-wrong, a magic spell or a mysterious quantum event? Is this the new Tower of Babel?