In a world where a simple drink of water can kill you . . . When governments collide and the world finds itself in flames on Christmas Eve, only the strong and resourceful survive. For thirty years, the tainted water kills humans and animals alike. Only plants can drink without purifying the poisonous fluid so essential to life. During those thirty years, the Richmond family ekes out an existence in the backwoods of Maine, keeping to themselves and avoiding all contact with strangers, while miles away, the Perkins family claw their way through town after town, determined to escape the dominating militias and stake out a claim of their own. Neither family knows of the other's existence. Neither family cares. Until a crowing rooster sets events in motion that will send the two families on a collision course so violent only one family can survive.