Seething with rage toward what he regards as the sinful modern world, a thirty-eight-year-old survivalist named Cliff retreats to an uninhabited valley deep in the Rocky Moun-tains. He has rebuilt a 1930's-era miner's shack at timberline and has stocked it with food, cold-winter gear, equipment, and weapons. In this aerie Cliff awaits the collapse of civilization, the Tribulation, and the End of Days. He is ready for any and all of the calamities destined to befall humankind. Soon, however, Cliff starts to wonder if the Tribulation he experiences is taking place out in the world or inside his own mind.