Milton Styles' life stopped on the day his wife and daughter went missing. The idea of their cries as they were swept out to sea haunts him. It also fuels a recurring nightmare of their demise until, one night, he dreams of four unutterably beautiful blue lights that hang serenely in the sky above the scene. For the first time in months he sleeps until morning and awakens filled with a sense of hope. When Milton posts his family's story online, at disafter.com - a website for disaster survivors and their families - his words touch Lynda Buchan - herself a disaster widow - and the two become friends online. Later however, when he posts an appeal for more sightings of the lights, his suggestion of a connection with other natural disasters propels him unexpectedly to worldwide attention. Faced with an onslaught of abuse and ridicule, Lynda goes to him and they become lovers. In Texas, the lights have also caught the attention of psychopathic UFO cult leader, Joshua Hayle, to whom they are harbingers of an apocalypse that only he can prevent. When his message is ignored, Hayle blames Milton and acts swiftly to resolve the issue: Milton must either become his prophet, or else a martyr to the cause. Hayle's headlong rush to save mankind, and Milton's quest to discover the truth about his family, lead the two men to a last-ditch encounter as one of nature's most violent events unfolds behind them. Which of them is right, and will either of them survive to see the truth?