The struggle to survive took all of David's effort in the months after the EMP. Caring for his ailing parents gave him both a purpose and duty to the small farm town he grew up in. Now that his responsibility is over, he bets his life, and the lives of his friends, on a risky trek through the brutal winter to find and save his family in Chicago. Fierce blizzards and arctic winds challenge their arduous journey as do the warlords and tyrants who hold fast to the remnants of civilization. It is through this wasteland of suffering and death that David must face the odds and save his wife and daughter.