It is the sequel to The Last Policeman (2012) and follows the exploits of former detective Henry Palace as he investigates the disappearance of Brett Cavatone, the husband of his childhood nanny, Martha.

With electricity and telecommunications links down, petroleum increasingly scarce and with water supplies of unknown potability, former Concord police detective Henry Palace is in a race with time.

As the apocalypse approaches, individuals are abandoning their former professional and vocational responsibilities to pursue various personalized "bucket lists" of preferred activities, but despite his redundancy from the nationalized Concord Police Department, Palace still intends to fulfill his duty to Martha and Brett Cavatone.

As the U.S. economy is dismantled, Concord is full of empty storefronts, while remaining police protect citizens from their feral apocalyptic fellow inhabitants.

However, Nico Palace is also pursuing a nostrum of her own- the use of nuclear deterrence against 2011GV1, which sets up the core scenario for the final book in the trilogy, World of Trouble (2014).