In a dystopian future, an epic battle between the sexes will determine who lives and who dies. After the Blue Pox pandemic wipes out most of the world's population, the majority male and under the age of 50, 18-year-old Madison wanders the countryside, lost and alone. She teams up with Katherine, a former anthropologist, in search of a safe place to live, and the two discover a group of women gathered on the campus of a small college in East Tennessee. Katherine quickly establishes herself as leader and under the influence of Callie, a former prison guard, begins to imprison men, whom they refer to as the "others," for what Madison perceives can only be nefarious reasons. When older and weaker prisoners start mysteriously disappearing, Madison suspects Callie and her band of deputies are killing them but cannot prove this. As Katherine and Callie become more maniacal in their brutal quest to build the community and gain power, Madison knows she will soon have to make a decision to either stay and become puppet to their plans or make her way alone in a desolate, violent world. But before she can do so, she meets Jonah, a young man captured by Callie. Caught between her loyalty to Katherine and her attraction to Jonah, Madison is forced to make a harder decision: to stay and condone what Callie and Katherine are doing or risk her life and escape with Jonah.