For Peter, the end of civilization begins quietly with the disappearance of his mother. At the police station he learns that thousands of others have gone mysteriously missing overnight, and that tens of millions more are vanishing daily across the globe. Without explanation humanity finds itself facing its final year on the planet, and it is only then that Peter falls in love. Her name is Sophia, and though both are haunted by loss they find in each other a passion that is as real as it is worth fighting for. As the government buckles and then collapses, as the darkest registers of human nature are sounded and a brutal demagogue rises to lead a reign of terror, they strive to find meaning and purpose in a world that is bereft of all certainties but one: that they too are fated to disappear.