The last message broadcast from the known world: Missiles are heading towards all the cities in North America. Any of the planet's people and other creatures not killed by the missile strikes will die from the poison winds. A small group of women and girls survive due to the timing of a freak plane crash. With good luck and summer weather they carry on, eking out an existence on a mountainside in Colorado. Their reality is meager: they sustain themselves on roots and leaves and sleep in a debris hut. They mourn the loss of their loved ones, their homes, their careers and pastimes. Some of the women forge bonds while others develop dislikes. Ultimately they share their secrets and their sadnesses and form a small community. After the women come to accept the fact that they will freeze to death when winter comes, they experience a strange peace verging on euphoria, a previously unknown sense of freedom. However, in the nick of time, just after the first snowfall, they heed the disjointed utterings of a demented old lady Reverend in their midst, and find shelter with the companionship of a ninety-nine-year-old blind man. And some months later, they encounter three young men who join them. In an empty world, the children grow unfettered and reveal new and remarkable native abilities. And despite mourning the loss of their old lives and loves, the adults eventually adapt and then thrive. In the end they all experience an expansion of consciousness and become pioneers in an amazing new world.