In the late 1970s, Jess Shepard's run of critically lauded art projects peaks with Zero Zone, an installation at a former nuclear bomb testing site in the New Mexico desert. But when a small group of travellers experience what they perceive as a religious awakening inside Zero Zone, they barricade themselves in the installation until authorities are forced to intervene. That violent showdown becomes a media sensation, and its aftermath follows Jess wherever she goes. Jess unravels mentally and emotionally, until, three years later, a survivor from Zero Zone comes looking for her.