After an EMP obliterates the nation's electrical grid on New Year's Eve, it's not long before society unravels and panic ensues. As the lights go out and silence spreads over the city that never sleeps, four ordinary strangers - a bike messenger, a homeless person, a support rep, and an ex-convict - must forge a connection in order to stay alive. When they realize the danger is far greater than they expected, they must embark on a perilous journey out of the city.

When Colby Riker, a former LAPD cop turned skillful bounty hunter is hired to bring in Alicia Scott, an elusive bail-jumper, he figured it was an easy payday - until a catastrophic EMP obliterates the country’s power grid and millions are thrust into chaos. No electricity, no transportation, no phones, no rules.

As earthquakes are triggered, fault lines split, buildings crumble, and monstrous tsunamis rush inland, Jax, his daughter Zoe, and a group of civilians with vastly separate lives collide in the Northwest in an interweaving story of survival, loss, and redemption. Meanwhile, Natalie Reid is at the Gatlinburg Midnight Parade, charged with caring for teens from a group home; when the earth shakes, the sky lights up in a brilliant light, and planes fall from the sky.

Consumed by guilt over the accidental death of his daughter’s husband and child, a disabled veteran, John Sheridan leaves Florida and returns to his small town in the Black Hills of South Dakota to finalize the sale of a remote mountain cabin once shared with his wife. With his vision failing, he now believes this will be the last time he will see it and get to enjoy the biggest motorcycle rally in the world. But when a dirty-looking local teenage girl seeking safety breaks in and the power goes out, he learns a disturbing story and must decide whose survival matters more.

Landon Gray, a skillful "ferry pilot" who delivers planes to customers has one final drop in Alabama before Christmas. But when an EMP causes the plane he’s in to crash on the remote, snow-covered mountains of North Carolina, he’s rescued by Beth "Bluebird" Sullivan, who claims to have lived off the grid since she was born. Beth brings him back to an isolated cabin to recover while waiting for her father to come back from the nearby town. When he doesn’t return, Beth grows increasingly worried while Landon struggles with being far from home.