“They never had a chance to see their children grow up. To watch each other grow old. To fix up the house, to take that vacation. Because it only took an instant to shatter their dreams.”

It's just another day in the small town of Hamlin until something disastrous happens. Suddenly, news breaks that a series of nuclear warheads has been dropped along the Eastern Seaboard and, more locally, in California. As people begin coping with the devastating aftermath of the attacks — many suffer radiation poisoning — the Wetherly family tries to survive.