Bishop and Tessa Dawes survive on opposite sides of the Manhattan Island seawall, one of 15 corporation-controlled cities across the United States in the post-asteroid apocalypse. While Bishop works off citizenship debt in the drone command center, slowly building credit to secure her entry in two years, Tessa survives in the lawless boroughs surrounding the city, reconditioning knives for the black-market Free Zone controlled by bullet gangs. On a cold January day, an offer from management - Bishop has 48 hours to drive to the free city of Bangor, Maine, and kidnap a doctor capable of saving the life of Manhattan's ill CEO. Upon his successful return, his debt will be wiped clean, and Tessa will be granted entry, their year and a half separation ended, a new life within their grasp.

Bishop departs for Bangor unaware of the forces working for and against him, the corporate backstabbing and deception at the highest levels of Manhattan's government, of the fate of the soldiers sent before him, and the immediate threat to Tessa's safety.

The Black Sky is ultimately a story about family by blood, by circumstance, and by community, while exploring themes of economic, technological, and surveillance extremism.