One day, the entire world changes. Just about everything else stays the same. The magnetic pulse of a passing comet destroys every electronic component on Earth. The standard of living for all industrialized nations has been irrevocably altered. Aside from that, not much has changed. Harvard Wilcox is just barely old enough to remember when The Blackout happened. However, at this moment he doesn't remember anything at all, having self-administered an amnesia-inducing drug called Amnitol. Finding that he'd left himself no clues as to why he'd done this, or why he'd chosen such unfriendly surroundings to dose himself in, Harvard's hunt for answers lead him to believe that either he'd gotten himself entangled in a very extreme situation, or he's just not very smart.